the objects only of a subordinate fear or hope when the fear of man comes in competition with the fear of God it is wise counsel which the Prophet Isaiah gives Say ye not A confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say A confederacy neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid Sanctifie the Lord God of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread and he shall be for a sanctuary 8 Isai. 12 13 14. There is a vast difference between the power of God and men which is our Saviour's reason why we should fear God more than men Be not afraid of them who can kill the body and after that have no more that they can do but I will forewarn ye whom ye shall fear Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him 12 Luke 4 5. But whatever power men may have to hurt while they live they can do us no hurt when they are dead and their lives are so very uncertain that we may be quickly eased of those fears The same may be said with respect to hope and confidence in men though their word and promise were always sacred yet their lives are uncertain Their breath goeth forth they return to the earth in that very day their thoughts perish all the good and all the evil they intended to do But happy is he that hath the God of Iacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God which made heaven and earth the sea and all that therein is who keepeth truth for ever 146 Psal. 5. 6. 6. For a conclusion of this Argument I shall briefly vindicate the wisdom and goodness of God in concealing from us the time of our Death This we are very apt to complain of that our lives are so very uncertain that we know not to day but that we may die to morrow and we would be mighty glad to meet with any one who could certainly inform us in this matter how long we are to live but if we think a little better of it we shall be of another mind For 1. though I presume many of you would be glad to know that you shall certainly live twenty or thirty or forty years longer yet would it be any comfort to know that you must die to morrow or some few months or a year or two hence which may be your case for ought you know and this I believe you are not very desirous to know for how would this chill your blood and spirits how would it overcast all the pleasures and comforts of life You would spend your days like men under the sentence of Death while the execution is suspended Did all men who must die young certainly know it it would destroy the industry and improvements of half Mankind which would half destroy the World or be an insupportable mischief to Humane Societies For what man who knows that he must die at twenty or five and twenty a little sooner or later would trouble himself with ingenious or gainful Arts or concern himself any more with this World than just to live so long in it and yet how necessary is the service of such men in the World what great things do they many times do and what great improvements do they make how pleasant and diverting is their conversation while it is innocent how do they enjoy themselves and give life and spirit to the graver Age how thin would our Schools our Shops our Universities and all places of Education be did they know how little time many of them were to live in the World for would such men concern themselves to learn the Arts of living who must die as soon as they have learnt them Would any Father be at a great expence in educating his Child only that he might die with a little Latine and Greek Logick and Philosophy No half the World must be divided into Cloysters and Nunneries and Nurseries for the Grave Well you 'll say suppose that and is not this an advantage above all the inconveniencies you can think of to secure the salvation of so many thousands who are now eternally ruined by youthful Lusts and Vanities but would spend their days in Piety and Devotion and make the next World their only care if they knew how little while they were to live here Right I grant this might be a good way to correct the heat and extravagancies of Youth and so it would be to shew them Heaven and Hell but God does not think fit to do either because it offers too much force and violence to mens minds it is no trial of their vertue of their reverence for God of their conquests and victory over this World by the power of Faith but makes Religion a matter of necessity not of choice now God will force and drive no man to Heaven the Gospel-Dispensation is the trial and discipline of ingenuous Spirits and if the certain hopes and fears of another World and the uncertainty of our living here will not conquer these flattering temptations and make men seriously religious as those who must certainly die and go into another World and they know not how soon God will not try whether the certain knowledge of the time of their death will make them religious That they may die young and that thousands do so is reason enough to engage young men to expect death and prepare for it if they will venture they must take their chance and not say they had no warning of dying young if they eternally miscarry by their wilful delays And besides this God expects our youthful service and obedience though we were to live on till old Age that we may die young is not the proper much less the only reason why we should remember our Creator in the days of our youth but because God has a right to our youthful strength and vigour and if this will not oblige us to an early Piety we must not expect that God will set death in our view to fright and terrifie us as if the only design God had in requiring our obedience was not that we might live like reasonable Creatures to the glory of their Maker and Redeemer but that we might repent of our sins time enough to escape Hell. God is so merciful as to accept of returning Prodigals but does not think fit to encourage us in Sin by giving us notice when we shall die and when it is time to think of repentance 2dly Though I doubt not but that it would be a great pleasure to you to know that you shall live till old Age yet consider a little with yourselves and then tell me whether you yourselves can judge it wise and fitting for God to let you know this I observed to you before what danger there is in flattering ourselves with the hopes of long life that it is apt to make us too fond of this World when we expect to live
and then thou shalt not so much as see the God thou worshippest the Earth shall shortly cover thee and then thou shalt have thy mouth and belly full of clay and dust Such thoughts as these will cool our desires to this present World will make us contented when we have enough and very charitable and liberal of what we can spare For what should we do with more in this World than will carry us thorough it What better and wiser use can we make of such Riches as we cannot carry with us into the other World than to return them thither before hand in acts of Piety and Charity that we may receive the rewards and recompences of them in a better life that we may make to our selves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that when we fail they may receive us into everlasting habitations When he finds his mind begin to swell and to encrease as his fortune and honours do Lord thinks he what a bubble is this which every breath of Air can blow away How vain a thing is Man in his greatest glory who appears gay and beautiful like a Flower in the Spring and is as soon cut down and withered Though we should meet with no change in our fortune here yet we shall suddenly be removed out of this World the scene of this life will change and there is an end of earthly Greatness And what a contemptible mind is that which is swelled with dying Honours which looks big indeed as a body does which is swelled out of all proportion with a Dropsy or Timpany but that is its Disease not a natural Beauty What am I better than the poorest Man who beggs an Alms unless I be wiser and more vertuous than he Can Lands and Houses great Places and Titles things which are not ours and which we cannot keep make such a mighty difference between one man and another are these the Riches are these the Beauties and Glories of a Spirit are we not all made of the same mould is not God the Father of us all must we not all die alike and lie down in the dust together and can the different parts we act in this World which are not so long as the Scene of a Play compared to an eternal Duration make such a vast difference between men This will make men humble and modest in the highest fortune as minding them that when they are got to the top-round of Honour if they keep from falling yet they must be carried down again and laid as low as the dust Thus when he finds the Body growing upon the Mind and intoxicating it with the love of sensual Pleasures he remembers that his Body must die and all these Pleasures must die with it that they are indeed killing Pleasures which kill a mortal Body before its time that it does not become a man who is but a Traveller in this World but a Pilgrim and a Stranger here to study Ease and Softness and Luxury that a Soul which must live for ever should seek after more lasting Pleasures which may survive the Funeral of the Body and be a spring of ravishing Joys when he is stript of Flesh and Blood. These are the thoughts which the consideration of Death will suggest to us as I have already shewed you And it is impossible for a man who has always these thoughts at hand to be much imposed on by the Pageantry of this World by the transient Honours and Pleasures of it It is indeed I think a very impracticable Rule which some men give To live always as if we were to die the next moment Our lives should always be as innocent as if we were immediately to give up our accounts to God but it is impossible to have always those sensible apprehensions of Death about us which we have when we see it approaching but though we cannot live as if we were immediately to die which would put an end not only to all innocent Mirth but to all the necessary Business of the World which I believe no dying man would concern himself for yet we may and we ought to live as those who must certainly die and ought to have these thoughts continually about us as a guard upon our actions For whatever is of such mighty consequence to us as Death is if it be certain ought always to give Laws to our Behaviour and Conversation 2ly If it be certain we must die the very first thing we ought to do in this World after we come to years of understanding should be to prepare for Death that whenever Death comes we may be ready for it This I confess is not according to the way of this World for dying is usually the last thing they take care of This is thought a little unseasonable while men are young and healthful and vigorous but besides the uncertainty of our lives and that it is possible while we delay Death may seize on us before we are provided for it and then we must be miserable for ever which I shall speak to under the next Head. I doubt not but to convince every considering man that an early Preparation for Death is the very best means to make our lives happy in this World while we do continue here Nor shall I urge here how a life of Holiness and Vertue which is the best and only Preparation for Death tends to make us happy in this World delivers us from all those Mischiefs which the wildness and giddiness of Youth and the more confirmed debaucheries of riper Years expose Men too for this is properly the commendation of Vertue not of an early Preparation for Death And yet this is really a great engagement and motive to prepare betimes for Death since such a Preparation for Death will put us to no greater hardships and inconveniencies than the practice of such Vertues as will prolong our lives preserve or increase our fortunes give us honour and reputation in the World and makes us beloved both by God and men But setting aside these things there are two advantages of an early Preparation for Death which contribute more to our Happiness than all the World besides 1. That it betimes delivers us from the fears of Death and consequently from most other fears 2ly That it supports us under all the troubles and calamities of this life 1. It betimes delivers us from the sears of Death and indeed it is then only a man begins to live when he is got above the fears of Death Were men thoughtful and considerate Death would hang over them in all their Mirth and Jollity like a fatal Sword by a single Hair it would sowre all their Enjoyments and strike terror into their hearts and looks But the security of most men is that they put off the thoughts of Death as they do their preparation for it they live secure and free from danger onely because they will not open their eyes to see it But these are such examples as no
dependance on God nothing gives a more signal demonstration of a divine Power or Vengeance or Protection nothing is a greater blessing to Families or Kingdoms or a greater punishment to them than the life or death of a Parent of a Child of a Prince and therefore it is as necessary to reserve this Power to God as to assert a Providence There are two or three places of Scripture which are urged in favour of the contrary opinion 14 Job 5. Seeing his days are determined the number of his months are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass 7 Job 1. Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth are not his days also like the days of an hireling Which refer not to the particular period of every Man's life but as I observed before to the general period of humane Life which is fixt and determined which is therefore called the days or the years of Man because God has appointed this the ordinary time of Man's life as when God threatens that the Wicked shall not live out half their days that is half that time which is allotted for men to live on Earth for they have no other interest in these days but that they are the days of a man and therefore might be their days too From what I have now discoursed there are two things very plainly to be observed 1. That men may contribute very much to the lengthening or shortning their own lives 2. That the Providence of God does peculiarly over-rule and determine this matter 1. As for the first there is no need to prove it for we see men destroy their own lives every day either by intemperance and lust or more open violence by forfeiting their lives to publick Justice or by provoking the Divine Vengeance and therefore who ever desires a long life to fill up the number of his days which God has allotted us in this World must keep himself from such destructive Vices must practise the most healthful Vertues must make God his Friend and engage his Providence for his defence Can any thing be more absurd than to hear men promise themselves long life and reckon upon forty or fifty years to come when they run into those Excesses which will make a quick and speedy end of them which will either inflame and corrupt their Bloud and let a Feavour or a Dropsy into their Veins or bring Rottenness into their Bones or engage them in some fatal Quarrel or ruine their Estates and send them to seek their fortune upon the Road which commonly brings them to the Gallows What a fatal Cheat is this which men put upon themselves especially when they sin in hope of time to repent and commit such sins as will give them no time to repent in The advice of the Psalmist is much better What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile depart from evil and do good seek peace and persue it These are natural and moral causes of a long life but that is not all For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry the face of the Lord is against them that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth That is God will prolong the lives of good Men and cut off the Wicked not that this is a general rule without exception but it is the ordinary method of Providence 34 Psal. 12 13 c. 2. For though God has not determined how long every man shall live by an absolute and unconditional Decree yet if a Sparrow does not fall to the ground without our Father much less does Man No man can go out of this World no more than he can come into it but by a special Providence no man can destroy himself but by God's leave no Disease can kill but when God pleases no mortal Accident can befal us but by God's appointment who is therefore said to deliver the Man into the hands of his Neighbour who is killed by any evil Accident 19 Deut. 4 5. Those wasting Judgments of Plague and Pestilence Famine and Sword are appointed by God and have their particular Commissions where to strike as we may see 26 Lev. 47. Ier. 6. 7. 65 Isai. 12. 15 Ierem. 2. 91 Psal. and several other places All the rage and fury of Men cannot take away our lives but by God's particular permission 10 Matth. 28 29 30 31. And this lays as great an obligation on us as the love of life can which is the dearest thing in this World to serve and please God this will make us secure from all fears and dangers My times saith David are in thy hand deliver me from the hand of mine enemies and from them that persecute me 31 Psal. 15. This encourages us to pray to God for ourselves or our Friends whatever danger our lives are in either from sickness or from men There is no case wherein he can't help us when he sees fit he can rectify the disorders of Nature and correct an ill habit of Body and rebuke the most raging Distempers which mock at all the Arts of Physick and powers of Drugs and many times does so by insensible methods To conclude this is a great satisfaction to good men that our lives are in the hands of God that though there be not such a fixt and immoveable Period set to them yet Death cannot come but by God's appointment SECT VI. The particular Time when we are to Die is unknown and uncertain to us III. THe particular time when any of us are to Die is unknown and uncertain to us and this is that which we properly call the uncertainty of our lives that we know not when we shall Die whether this night or to morrow or twenty years hence There is no need to prove this but only to mind you of it and to acquaint you what wise use you are to make of it 1. This shews how unreasonable it is to flatter ourselves with the hope of long life I mean of prolonging our lives near the utmost term and period of humane life which though it be but short in itself is yet the longest that any man can hope to live No wise man will promise himself that which he can have no reason to expect but what has very often failed others for let us seriously consider what reason any of us have to expect a long life is it because we are young and healthful and vigorous And do we not daily see young men die can youth or beauty or strength secure us from the arrests of Death is it because we see some men live to a great age But this was no security to those who died young and left a great many men behind them who had lived twice or thrice their age and therefore we also may see a great many old men and die young
IMPRIMATUR Z. Isham R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. Ã Sacris Septemb. 11 1689. A Practical Discourse CONCERNING DEATH BY WILLIAM SHERLOCK D. D. Master of the TEMPLE LONDON Printed for W. Rogers at the Sun over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street MDCLXXXIX To the Worshipful THE MASTERS of the BENCH And the rest of the Members of the two Honourable Societies OF THE TEMPLE My much Honoured Friends ONE reason of Publishing this Plain Discourse is because I cannot now Preach to you as formerly I have done and have no other way left of discharging my Duty to You but by making the Press supply the place of the Pulpit Part of this You have already heard and should have heard the rest had I enjoyed the same Liberty still which God restore to me again when He sees fit if not His will be done And the only reason of this Dedication is to make this publick and thankful Acknowledgment before I am forced from You if I must be so Unhappy of Your Great Respects and many singular Favours to me which have been always so free and generous that they never gave time nor left any room for me to ask especially that obliging Welcome You gave me at my first coming I mean Your Present of a House which besides the Conveniencies and Pleasure of a Delightful Habitation has afforded me that which I value much more the frequent opportunities of Your Conversation Though I am able to make You no better Return than Thanks I hope that Great MASTER whom I serve will and that GOD would multiply all Temporal and Spiritual Blessings on You is and always shall be the sincere and hearty Prayer of GENTLEMEN Your Most Obliged and Humble Servant W. Sherlock THE CONTENTS THe Introduction Page 1 CHAP. I. The several Notions of Death and the Improvement of them 4 SECT I. The first Notion of Death that it is our leaving this World with the Improvement of it 6 SECT II. The second Notion of Death that it is our putting off these Bodies 35 SECT III. Death considered as our entrance upon a new and unknown State of Life 69 CHAP. II. Concerning the Certainty of our Death 89 SECT I. A Vindication of the Iustice and Goodness of God in appointing Death for all Men 92 SECT II. How to improve this Consideration that we must certainly die 110 CHAP. III. Concerning the time of our Death and the proper Improvement of it 125 SECT I. That the general Period of Humane Life is fixt and determined by God and that it is but very short 128 SECT II. What little reason we have to complain of the Shortness of Humane Life 184 SECT III. What Use to make of the fixt Term of Humane Life 144 SECT IV. What Use to make of the Shortness of Humane Life 162 SECT V. The time and manner and circumstances of every particular Man's Death are not determined by an Absolute and Unconditional Decree 185 SECT VI. The particular time when we are to die is unknown and uncertain to us 196 SECT VII That we must die but Once or that Death translates us to an unchangeable State with the Improvement of it 234 CHAP. IV. Concerning the Fear of Death and the Remedies against it 328 The Conclusion 351 ERRATA PAge 130. l. 8. for unreasonable read unanswerable p. 214. l. 13. r. at present A Practical Discourse CONCERNING DEATH 9 Hebrews 27. It is appointed for Men once to die The INTRODUCTION THere is not a more effectual way to revive the True Spirit of Christianity in the World than seriously to meditate on what we commonly call the four last things Death Judgment Heaven and Hell For it is morally impossible men should live such careless lives should so wholly devote themselves to this World and the service of their Lusts should either cast off the fear of God and all reverence for his Laws or satisfie themselves with some cold and formal Devotions were they possest with a warm and constant sense of these things For what manner of Men ought we to be who know that we must shortly die and come to Judgment and receive according to what we have done in this World whether it be good or evil either eternal Rewards in the Kingdom of Heaven or eternal Punishments with the Devil and his Angels That which first presents it self to our thoughts and shall be the Subject of this following Treatise is Death a very terrible thing the very naming of which is apt to chill our Blood and Spirits and to draw a dark veil over all the Glories of this Life And yet this is the condition of all Mankind we must as surely die as we are born For it is appointed unto Men once to die This is not the Original Law of our Nature for though Man was made of the dust of the Earth and therefore was by nature Mortal for that which is made of dust is by nature corruptible and may be resolved into dust again yet had he not sinned he should never have died he should have been immortal by Grace and therefore had the Sacrament of Immortality the Tree of Life Planted in Paradise But now by Man Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned 5 Rom. 12. and thus it is decreed and appointed by God by an irreversible Sentence dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return Now to improve this Meditation to the best advantage I shall 1. Consider what Death is and what Wisdom that should teach us 2. The certainty of our Death that it is appointed unto Men once to die 3. The time of our death it must be once but when we know not 4. The natural fears and terrors of Death or our natural aversions to it and how they may be allayed and sweetned CHAP. I. The several Notions of Death and the Improvement of them 1. WHat Death is and I shall consider three things in it 1. That it is our leaving this World. 2. Our putting off these earthly Bodies 3. Our entrance into a New and Unknown state of Life for when we die we do not fall into nothing or into a profound sleep into a state of silence and insensibility till the Resurrection But we only change our place and our dwelling we remove out of this World and leave our Bodies to sleep in the Earth till the Resurrection but our Souls and Spirits live still in an invisible State. I shall not go about to prove these things but take it for granted that you all believe them For that we leave this World and that our Bodies rot and putrifie in the Grave needs no proof for we see it with our eyes and that our Souls cannot die but are by nature Immortal has been the belief of all Mankind The Gods which the Heathens Worshipped were most of them no other but dead Men and therefore they did believe that the Soul survived the Funeral of the
Body or they could never have made Gods of them Nay there is such a strong sense of Immortality imprinted on our natures that very few Men how much soever they have debauched their natural Sentiments can wholly deliver themselves from the fears of another World. But we have a more sure Word of Prophesie than this Since Life and Immortality is now brought to light by the Gospel For this is so plainly taught in Scripture that no Man who believes that needs any other proof My business therefore only shall be to show you how such thoughts as these should affect our minds What that Wisdom is which the thoughts of Death will naturally teach us how that Man ought to live who knows that he must die and leave his Body behind him to rot in the Grave and go himself into a new World of Spirits SECT I. The first Notion of Death that it is our leaving this World with the improvement of it 1. FIrst then let us consider Death only as our leaving this World a very delightful place you 'l say especially when our circumstances are easie and prosperous here a Man finds whatever he most naturally loves whatever he takes pleasure in the supply of all his wants the gratification of all his senses whatever an earthly creature can wish for or desire The truth is few Men know any other happiness much less any thing above it they feel what strikes upon their senses this they think a real and substantial good but as for more pure and intellectual joys they know no more what to make of them than of Ghosts and Spirits they account them thin vanishing things and wonder what Men mean who talk so much of them Nay good Men themselves are apt to be too much pleased with this World while they are easy here something else is necessary to wean them from it and to cure their fondness of it besides the thoughts of dying which makes the Sufferings and Afflictions and Disappointments of this Life so necessary for the best of Men. This is one thing which makes the thoughts of Death so terrible Men think themselves very well as they are and most Men think that they cannot be better and therefore very few are desirous of a change Extream miseries may conquer the love of Life and some few Divine Souls may long with St. Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all but this World is a beloved place to the generality of Mankind and that makes it a very troublesom thing to leave it whereas did we rightly consider this matter it would rectifie our mistakes about these things and teach us how to value and how to use them For 1. If we must leave this World how valuable soever these things are in themselves they are not so valuable to us For besides the intrinsick worth of things there is somthing more required to engage the Affections of Wise Men. viz. Propriety and a secure Enjoyment What is not our own we may admire if it be Excellent but cannot dote on and what is worth having increases or decreases in value proportionably to the length and certainty of its continuance what we cannot enjoy is nothing to us how excellent soever it be and to enjoy it but a little while is next to not enjoying it for we cannot enjoy it always and such things cannot be called our own and this shows us what value we ought to set upon this World and all things in it e'en just so much as upon things that are not our own and which we cannot keep We use indeed to call things our own which we have a legal title to which no Man can by Law or Justice deprive us of and this is the only property we can have in these things a property against all other human claims but nothing which can be taken from us nothing which we must leave is properly our own for in a strict sense nothing is our own but what is Essential either to our Being or to our Happiness Creatures are Proprietors of nothing not so much as of themselves for we are his who made us and who may unmake us again when he pleases but yet there are some things proper to our natures and that is all the natural propriety we have but what is thus proper to us we cannot be deprived of without ceasing to be or being miserable And this proves that the things of this World are not our own that they are not proper and peculiar to our natures though they are necessary to this present state of Life While we live here we want them but when we leave this World we must live without them and may be happy without them too There is a great agreeableness between the things of this World and an Earthly nature they are a great support and comfort to us in this mortal state and therefore while we live in this World we may value the enjoyments of it for the ease and conveniencies of Life but we must neither call this Life nor any enjoyments of it our own because they are short and perishing we are here but as Travellers in an Inn it is not our Home and Country it is not our Portion and Inheritance but a moveable and changeable Scene which is entertaining at present but cannot last Let us then consider how we ought to value such things as these and to make it as plain and self-evident as I can I shall put some easie and familiar Cases 1. Suppose you were a Travelling through a very delightful Country where you met with all the Pleasures and Conveniencies of Life but knew that you must not tarry there but only pass through it would you think it reasonable to set your Affections so much upon it as to make it uneasie to you to leave it And shall we then grow so fond of this World which we must only pass thorough where we have no abiding City as to enslave our selves to the Lusts and Pleasures of it and to carry out of this World such a Passion for it as shall make us miserable in the next For tho' Death will separate us from this World we are not sure that it will cure our Earthly Passions we may still find the torment of Sensual Appetites when all Sensual Objects are removed This was all the Purgatory-fire St. Austin could think of that those who loved this World too much here though otherwise innocent and vertuous Men should be punished with fruitless desires and hankerings after this World in the next which is a mixt torment of desire and despair For though indeed it is only living in these Bodies which betrays the Soul to such Earthly Affections yet when the impression is once made and is strong and vigorous we are not sure that merely putting off these Bodies will cure it as we see Age it self in Old Sinners does not cure the wantonness of Desire when the Body is effaete and languid
for a Man who must die to forfeit an immortal Life to reprieve a mortal and perishing Life for some few years II. As Death which is our leaving this World proves that these present things are not very valuable to us so it proves that they are not the most valuable things in their own natures though we were to enjoy them always it would be but a very mean and imperfect state in comparison of that better Life which is reserved for good Men in the next World. For 1. It is congruous to the Divine Wisdom and Goodness that the best things should be the most lasting Wisdom dictates this for it is no more than to give the preference to those things which are best The longest continuance gives a natural preference to things we always value those things most which we shall enjoy longest and therefore to give the longest duration to the worst things is to set the greatest value on them and to teach mankind to prefer them before that which is better What we value most we desire to enjoy longest and were it in our power we would make such things the most lasting which shows that it is the natural sense of mankind that the best things deserve to continue longest and therefore we need not doubt but that infinite Wisdom which made the World has proportioned the continuance of things to their true worth And if God have made the best things the most lasting then the next World in its own intrinsick nature is as much better then this World as it will last longer For this is most agreeable to the Divine Goodness too and Gods love to his Creatures that what is their greatest and truest happiness should be most lasting For if God have made Man capable of different degrees and states of happiness of living in this World and in the next it is an expression of more perfect goodness as it is most for the happiness of his Creatures that the most perfect state of happiness should last the longest for the more perfectly happy we are the more do we experience the Divine Goodness and he is the most perfectly happy who has the longest enjoyment of the best things 2. It seems most agreeable also to the Divine Wisdom and Goodness that where God makes such a vast change in the state of his Creatures as to remove them from this World to the next the last state should be the most perfect and happy I speak now of such Creatures as God designs for happiness for the reason alters where he intends to punish But where God intends to do good to Creatures it seems a very improper method to translate them from a more perfect and happy to a less happy state Every abatement of Happiness is a degree of Punishment and that which those Men are very sensible of who have enjoyed a more perfect Happiness And therefore we may certainly conclude that God would not remove good Men out of this World were this the happiest place Yes you 'l say Death is the Punishment of Sin and therefore it is a Punishment to be removed out of this World which spoils that Argument that this World is not the happiest place because God removes good Men out of it For this is the effect of that curse which was entailed on Mankind for the sin of Adam dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Now I grant Death as it signifies a separation of Soul and Body and the death of both which was included in that Curse was a Curse and a Punishment but not as it signifies leaving this World and living in the next We have some reason to think that though Man should never have died if he had not sinned yet he should not always have lived in this World. Human nature was certainly made for greater things than the enjoyment of sense It is capable of nobler advancements it is related to Heaven and to the World of Spirits and therefore it seems more likely that had Man continued innocent and by the constant exercise of Wisdom and Vertue improved his faculties and raised himself above this body and grown up into the Divine Nature and Life after a long and happy life here he should have been translated into Heaven as Enoch and Elias were without dying For had all Men continued innocent and lived to this day and propagated their kind this little spot of Earth had many Ages since been over-peopled and could not have subsisted without transplanting some Colonies of the most Divine and Purified Souls into the other World. But however that be it is certain that being removed out of this World and living in Heaven is not the Curse This fallen Man had no right to for he who by Sin had forfeited an earthly Paradise could not hereby gain a Title to Heaven Eternal Life is the gift of God through Iesus Christ our Lord it is the reward of good Men of a well spent life in this World of our Faith and Patience in doing and suffering the Will of God it is our last and final State where we shall live for ever and therefore the Argument is still good that this World cannot be the happiest place for then Heaven could not be a reward Though all Men are under the necessity of dying yet if this World had been the happiest place God would have raised good Men to have lived again in this World which he could as easily have done as have translated them to Heaven Now if this World be not the happiest place if present things be not the most valuable as appears from this very consideration that we must leave this World for to this I must confine my discourse at present there are several very good uses to be made of this As 1. To rectifie our Notions about present things 2. To live in expectation of some better things 3. Not to be over-concerned about the shortness of our Lives here 1. To rectify our Notions about present things 'T is our opinions of things which ruin us For what Mankind account their greatest happiness they must love and they must love without bounds or measures And it would go a great way to cure our extravagant fondness and passion for these things could we perswade our selves that there is any thing better But this I confess is a very hard thing for most Men to do because present things have much the advantage of what is absent and future Some who believe another life after this what ever great things they may talk of the other World yet do not seem throughly perswaded that the next World is a happier state than this for I think they could not be so fond of this World if they were And the reason of it is plain because happiness cannot be so well known as by feeling now Men feel the pleasures and happiness of this World but do not feel the happiness of the next and therefore are apt to think that that is the greatest
happiness which does most sensibly affect them But would they but seriously consider things they might see reason to think otherwise that the unknown joys and pleasures of the other World are much greater than any pleasures which they feel here For let us thus reason with our selves I find I am mortal and must shortly leave this World and yet I believe that my Soul cannot die as my Body does but shall only be translated to another state whatever I take pleasure in in this World I must leave behind me and know not what I shall find in the next But surely the other World where I must live for ever is not worse furnished than this World which I must so quickly leave For has God made me immortal and provided no sorts of pleasures and entertainments for an immortal state when he has so liberally furnished the short and changeable Scene of this Life I know not indeed what the pleasures of the next World are but no more did I know what the pleasures of this World were till I came into it and therefore that is no argument that there are no pleasures there because I do not yet know them and if there be any pleasures there surely they must be greater than what are here because it is a more lasting State For can we think that God has emptied all his Stores and Treasures into this World Nay can we think that he has given us the best things first where we can only just tast them and leave them behind us which is to excite and provoke an appetite which shall be restless and uneasy to Eternity No surely the other World must be infinitely a more happy place than this because it will last infinitely longer The Divine Wisdom and Goodness has certainly reserved the best things for Eternity for as eternal beings are the most perfect so they must be the most happy too unless we can separate perfection and happiness And therefore I cannot but conclude that there are greater pleasures that there is a happier state of Life then this because there is a Life which lasts for ever 2. This will naturally teach us to live in expectation of better things of greater though unknown and unexperienced pleasures which methinks all Men should do who know that there are better things to be had and that they must go into that State where these better things are to be had For can any Man be contented with a less degree of happiness who knows there is a greater This is stupidity and baseness of Spirit an ignoble mind which is not capable of great hopes Ambition and Covetousness indeed are ill names but yet they are symptoms of a great and generous Soul and are excellent Vertues when directed to their right Objects that is to such Objects as are truely great and excellent for it is only the meanness of the Object which makes them Vices to be ambitious of true Honour of the true Glory and Perfection of our Natures is the very principle and incentive of Vertue But to be ambitious of Titles of Place of some Ceremonious respects and Civil Pageantry is as vain and little as the things are which they court To be covetous of true and real Happiness to set no bounds nor measures to our desire or pursuit of it is true greatness of mind which will take up with nothing on this side perfection for God and Nature have set no bounds to our desires of happiness but as it is in natural so it ought to be in moral agents every thing grows till it comes to its maturity and perfection but then Covetousness is a Vice when men mistake their Object and are insatiable in their desires of that which is not their Happiness as Gold and Silver Houses and Lands what is more than we want and more than we can use cannot be the happiness of a Man. And thus it is on the other hand though Humility be a great Vertue as it is opposed to earthly ambitions as it sets us above the little opinions and courtship of the World which are such mean things as argue meanness of Spirit to stoop to them yet it is not Humility but sordidness to be regardless of true Honour Thus to be contented with our external Fortune in this World what ever it be to be able to see the greater prosperity and splendor of other Men without envy and without repining at our own meanness is a great Vertue because these things are not our happiness but for the use and conveniencies of this present Life and to be contented with a little of them for present use is an Argument that we do not think them our happiness which is the true excellency of this Vertue of Contentment but to be contented if we may so call it to want that which is our true happiness or any degree or portion of it to be contented never to enjoy the greatest and the best things is a Vice which contradicts the natural desires of happiness and you may call it what you will if you can think of any name bad enough for it It is the most despicable temper in the World to have no sense of true Honour or Happiness or when we know there are greater and better things to take up with some low enjoyments And therefore let the thoughts of this ennoble our minds and since there are better things in the other World let us use our utmost endeavours to possess our selves of them let us live like Men who are born for greater things then this World affords let us endeavour to inform our selves what the happiness of the next World is and how we may attain it and let us use all present things as those who know there are infinitely greater and better things reserved for us in the next World. III. This should teach us also not to be over-concerned for the shortness of our lives Our lives indeed are very short they flie away like a shadow and fade like the Flowers of the Field and this were a very unsupportable thought were there either no life after this or not so happy a life as this But besides all the other proofs we have of another life the very shortness of our lives may convince us that Death does not put an end to our being For can we imagine that so noble a Creature as Man is was made for a day Man I say who is big with such immortal designs full of projects for future ages who can look backward and forward and see an Eternity without beginning and without end Who was made to contemplate the wonders of Nature and Providence and to admire and adore his Maker Who is the Lord of this lower World but has eyes to look up to Heaven and view all the glories of it and to pry into that invisible World which this veil of Flesh intercepts the sight of Man who is so long a Child and by such slow steps arrives to the use of
Reason and by that time he has got a little Knowledge and is earnestly seeking after more by that time he knows what it is to be a Man and to what purpose he ought to live what God is and how much he is bound to Love and Worship him while he is ennobling his Soul with all Heavenly Qualities and Vertues and Coppying out the Divine Image when the Glories of Humane Nature begin to appear and to shine in him that is when he is most fit to live to serve God and Men then I say either this mortal Nature decays and dust returns to its dust again or some violent distemper or evil accident cuts him off in a vigorous age and when with great labour and industry he is become fit to live he must live no longer How is it possible to reconcile this with the Wisdom of God if man perishes when he dies if he ceases to be as soon as he comes to be a man. And therefore we have reason to believe that death only translates us into another World where the beginnings of Wisdom and Vertue here grow up into perfection and if that be a more happy place than this World as you have already heard we have no reason to quarrel that we live so little a while here For seting aside the Miseries and Calamities the troubles and inconveniencies of this Life which the happiest men are exposed to for our experience tells us that there is no complete and unmixt happiness here setting aside that this World is little else than a Scene of Misery to a great part of Mankind who struggle with want and poverty labour under the oppressions of Men or the pains and sicknesses of diseased Bodies yet if we were as happy as this World could make us we should have no reason to complain that we must exchange it for a much greater happiness We now call it death to leave this World but were we once out of it and enstated in the happiness of the next we should think it were dying indeed to come into it again We read of none of the Apostles who did so passionately desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ as St. Paul and there was some reason for it because he had had a tast of that happiness being snatched up into the third Heavens Indeed could we see the Glories of that place it would make us impatient of living here and possibly that is one reason why they are concealed from us but yet reason tells us that if death translate us to a better place the shortness of our lives here is an advantage to us if we take care to spend them well for we shall be the sooner possest of a much happier Life III. From this Notion of Death that it is our leaving this World I observe farther what this life is only a state of growth and improvement of trial and probation for the next There can be no doubt of this if we consider what the Scripture tells us of it that we shall be rewarded in the next World as we have behaved our selves in this That we shall receive according to what we have done in the Body whether good or evil Which proves that this life is only in order to the next that our eternal happiness or misery shall bare proportion to the good or evil which we have done here And when we only consider that after a short continuance here man must be removed out of this World if we believe that he does not utterly perish when he dies but subsists still in another state we have reason to believe that this life is only a preparation for the next For why should a man come into this World and afterwards be removed into another if this World had no relation nor subordination to the next Indeed it is evident that man is an improvable Creature not created at first in the utmost perfection of his Nature nor put into the happiest state he is capable of but trained up to perfection and happiness by degrees Adam himself in a state of innocence was but upon his good behaviour was but a probationer for Immortality which he forfeited by his sin and as I observed before it is most probable that had he continued innocent and refined and exalted his nature by the practise of Divine Vertues he should not have lived always in this World but have been translated into Heaven And I cannot see how it is inconsistent with the Wisdom of God to make some Creatures in a state of Probation that as the Angelical Nature was created so pure at first as to be fit to live in Heaven so Man though an earthly yet a reasonable Creature might be in a capacity by the improvement of his natural powers of advancing himself thither As it became the manifold Wisdom of God to create the Earth as well as the Heavens so it became his Wisdom to make Man to inhabitate this Earth for it was not fitting that any part of the World should be destitute of reasonable Beings to know and adore their Maker and to ascribe to him the glory of his Works but then since a reasonable Nature is capable of greater improvements than to live always in this World it became the Divine Goodness to make this World only a state of Probation and Discipline for the next that those who by a long and constant practice of Vertue had spiritualized their Natures into a Divine Purity might ascend into Heaven which is the true Center of all intelligent Beings This seems to be the original intention of God in making man and then this earthly life was from the beginning but a state of growth and improvement to make us fit for Heaven though without dying But to be sure the Scene is much alter'd now for Adam by his sin made himself mortal and corrupted his own nature and propagated a mortal and corrupt nature to his Posterity and therefore we have no natural right to Immortality nor can we refine our Souls into such a divine Purity as is fit for Heaven by the weakned and corrupted powers of Nature but what we cannot do Christ has done for us he has purchast Immortality for us by his Death and quickens and raises us into a new Life by his Spirit but since still we must die before we are immortal it is more plain than ever that this life is only in order to the next that the great business we have to do in this World is to prepare ourselves for Immortality and Glory Now if our life in this World be onely in order to another life we ought not to expect our complete Happiness here for we are only in the way to it we must finish the Work God has given us to do in this World and expect our reward in the next And if our reward cannot be had in this World we may conclude that there is something much better in the next World than any thing here If
this Life be our time to work in we should not consult our ease and softness and pleasures here for this is a place of labour and diligence not of rest We are a travelling to Heaven and must have our eye on our journeys end and not hunt after Pleasures and Diversions in the way The great end of living in this World is to be happy in the next and therefore we must wisely improve present things that they may turn to our future account Must make to our selves Friends of the Mammon of Unrighteousness that when we fail they may receive us into everlasting Habitations What concerns a better life must take up most of our thoughts and care and whatever endangers our future happiness must be rejected with all its charms It would not be worth the while to live some few years here were we not to live for ever and therefore it becomes a wise man who remembers that he must shortly leave this World to make this present life wholly subservient to his future happiness SECT II. The second Notion of Death that it is our putting off these Bodies II. LEt us now consider Death as it is our putting off these Bodies for this is the proper Notion of Death the separation of Soul and Body that the Body returns to Dust the Soul or Spirit unto God who gave it when we die we do not cease to be nor cease to live but only cease to live in these earthly Bodies the vital Union between Soul and Body is dissolved we are no longer encloister'd in a Tabernacle of Flesh we no longer feel the impressions of it neither the pains nor pleasures of the Body can affect us it can charm it can tempt no longer This needs no proof but very well deserves our most serious Meditations For 1. this teaches us the difference and distinction between Soul and Body which men who are sunk into flesh and sense are so apt to forget nay to lose the very notion and belief of it all their delights are fleshly they know no other pleasures but what their five senses furnish them with they cannot raise their thoughts above this body nor entertain any noble designs and therefore they imagine that they are nothing but flesh and blood a little organized and animated Clay and it is no great wonder that men who feel the workings and motions of no higher principle of life in them but flesh and sense should imagine that they are nothing but flesh themselves tho' methinks when we see the senseless and putrefying remains of a brave man before us it is hard to conceive that this is all of him that this is the thing which some few hours ago could reason and discourse was fit to govern a Kingdom or to instruct Mankind could despise flesh and sense and govern all his bodily Appetites and Inclinations was adorned with all divine graces and Vertues was the glory and pride of the Age And is this dead Carkase which we now see the whole of him Or was there a more divine Inhabitant which animated this earthly Machine which gave life and beauty and motion to it but is now removed To be sure those who believe that Death does not put an end to their being but only removes them out of this body which rots in the Grave while their Souls survive live and act and may be happy in a separate state should carefully consider this distinction between Soul and Body which would teach them a most Divine and Heavenly Wisdom For when we consider that we consist of Soul and Body which are the two distinct parts of Man this will teach us to take care of both for can any man who believes he has a Soul be concerned only for his Body A compound Creature cannot be happy unless both parts of him enjoy their proper pleasures He who enjoys onely the pleasures of the Body is never the happier for having a humane and reasonable Soul the soul of a Beast would have done as well and it may be better for bruit Creatures relish bodily pleasures as much and it may be more than Men do and reason is very troublesome to men who resolve to live like Bruits for it makes them ashamed and afraid which in many cases hinders or at least allays their pleasures And why should not a man desire the full and entire happiness of a man why should he despise any part of himself and that as you shall hear presently the best part too And therefore at least we ought to take as much care of our Souls as of our Bodies Do we adorn our Bodies that we may be fit to be seen and to converse with men and may receive those respects which are due to our quality and fortune and shall we not adorn our Souls too with those Christian Graces which make us lovely in the sight of God and men The Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which is in the sight of God of great price which St. Peter especially recommends to Christian Women as a more valuable ornament than the outward adorning of plaiting the hair or wearing gold or putting on of apparel 1 Peter 3. 3 4. The ornaments of Wisdom and Prudence of well governed Passions of Goodness and Charity give a grace and beauty to all our actions and such a pleasing and charming air to our very countenance as the most natural Beauty or artificial Washes and Paints can never imitate Are we careful to preserve our Bodies from any hurt from pains and sickness from burning Feavers or the racking Gout or Stone and shall we not be as careful of the ease of the Mind too To quiet and calm those Passions which when they grow outragious are more intollerable than all natural or artificial Tortures to moderate those Desires which rage like Hunger and Thirst those Fears which convulse the Mind with trembling and paralytick motions those furious Tempests of Anger Revenge and Envy which rufle our Minds and fill us with Vexation Restlesness and Confusion of Thoughts especially those guilty Reflections upon ourselves that Worm in the Conscience which gnaws the Soul and torments us with shame and remorse and dreadful expectations of an Avenger These are the Sicknesses and Distempers of the Soul these are Pains indeed more sharp and pungent and killing pains than our Bodies are capable of The spirit of a man can bear his infirmity natural Courage or the powers of Reason or the comforts of Religion can support us under all other Sufferings but a wounded spirit who can bear And therefore a man who loves ease should in the first place take care of the ease of his Mind for that will make all other sufferings easie but nothing can support a man whose mind is wounded Are we fond of bodily Pleasures are we ready to purchase them at any rate And if we be men why should we despise the pleasures of the mind if we have Souls why should we not reap the
benefit and the pleasures of them Do you think there are no pleasures proper to the Soul have we Souls that are good for nothing of no use to us but only to relish the pleasures of the Body Ask those who have tried what the pleasures of Wisdom and Knowledge are which does as much excel the pleasures of seeing as Truth is more beautiful and glorious than the Sun ask them what a pleasure it is to know God the greatest and best Being and the brightest Object of our minds to contemplate his Wisdom and Goodness and Power in the Works of Creation and Providence to be swallowed up in that stupendious Mystery of Love the Redemption of Sinners by the Incarnation and Sufferings of the Son of God ask them what the pleasures of Innocence and Vertue are what the Feast of a good Conscience means which is the greatest Happiness to give or to receive what the Joys even of Sufferings and Persecutions of Want and Poverty and Reproach are for the sake of Christ ask a devout Soul what transports and ravishments of Spirit he feels when he is upon his knees when with St. Paul he is even snatched up into the third Heavens filled with God overflowing with praises and divine joys And does it not then become a man who has a reasonable Soul to seek after these rational these manly these divine Pleasures the pleasures of the Mind and Spirit which are proper and peculiar to a reasonable Creature Let him do this and then let him enjoy the pleasures of the Body as much as he can which will be very insipid and tastless when his Soul is ravished with more noble delights In a word if we are so careful to preserve the life of our Bodies which we know must die and rot and putrifie in the Grave methinks we should not be less careful to preserve the life of our Souls which is the only immortal part of us for though our Souls cannot die as our Bodies do yet they may be miserable and that is called eternal Death where the Worm never dieth and the Fire never goeth out For to be always miserable is infinitely worse than not to be at all and therefore is the most formidable Death And if we are so unwilling to part with these mortal Bodies we ought in reason to be much more afraid to lose our Souls II. That Death is our putting off these Bodies teaches us That the Soul is the only principle of Life and Sensation The Body cannot live without the Soul but as soon as it is parted from it it loses all sence and motion and returns to its original Dust but the Soul can and does live without the Body and therefore there is the principle of Life This may be thought a very common and obvious Observation and indeed so it is but the consequences of this are not so commonly observed and yet are of great use and moment For 1. this shews us that the Soul is the best part of us that the Soul indeed is the Man because it is the only seat of Life and Knowledge and all Sensations for a Man is a living reasonable and understanding Being and therefore a living reasonable Soul not an earthly Body which has no life or sense but what it derives from the Soul must be the Man Hence in Scripture Soul so frequently signifies the Man thus we read of the Souls that were born to Iacob and the Souls that came with him into Aegypt 46. Gen. that is his Sons and Soul signifies our selves a Friend which is as thy own Soul that is as dear to us as our selves 13. Deut. 6. And Ionathan loved David as his own Soul that is as himself 1 Sam. 18. 3. For in propriety of Speech the Body has no sense at all but the Soul lives in the Body and feels all the motions and impressions of it so that it is the Soul only that is capable of Happiness or Misery of Pain or Pleasure and therefore it is the only concernment of a wise man to take care of his Soul as our Saviour tells us What shall it profit a man though he gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul 16. Matth. 26. The reason of which is easily apprehended when we remember that the Soul only is capable of Happiness or Misery that it is the Soul which must enjoy every thing else And what can the whole World then signifie to him who has no Soul to enjoy it whose Soul is condemned to endless and eternal Miseries Such a miserable Soul is as uncapable of enjoying the World or any thing in it as if it had lost its being 2ly Hence we learn the true notion of bodily Pleasures that they are such pleasures as the Soul feels by its union to the Body for it is not the Body that feels the pleasures but the Soul though the Body be the instrument of them and therefore how fond soever we are of them we may certainly conclude that bodily pleasures are the meanest pleasures of humane nature because the union to these earthly Bodies is the meanest and most despicable state of reasonable Souls These are not its proper and genuine pleasures which must result from its own nature and powers but are only external impressions the light and superficial touches of matter and it would be very absurd to conceive that the Soul which is the onely subject of pleasure should have no pleasures of its own but borrow its whole Happiness from its affinity and alliance to Matter or that its greatest pleasures should be owing to external impressions not to the actings of its own natural faculties and powers Which may convince us as I observed before that the pleasures of the mind are much the greatest and noblest pleasures of the Man and he who would be truly happy must seek for it not in Bodily entertainments but in the improvements and exercise of Reason and Religion 3ly Hence we learn also that the Body was made for the Soul not the Soul for the Body as that which in it self has no Life and Sense is made for the use of that which has The Body is only a convenient habitation for the Soul in this World an Instrument of Action and a Tryal and Exercise of Vertue but the Soul is to use the Body and to govern it to tast its pleasures and to set bounds to them to make the Body serviceable to the ends and purposes of Reason and Vertue not to subject Reason to Passion and Sense If the Body was made for the use of the Soul it was never intended the Soul should wholly consorm it self to it and by its sympathy with corporeal Passions transform it self into a sensual and brutish nature Such degenerate Creatures are those who live only to serve the Body who value nothing else and seek for nothing else but how to gratifie their Appetites and Lusts which is to invert
and Sense to govern our bodily Appetites and Passions to grow indifferent to the Pleasures of Sense to use them for the refreshment and necessities of Nature but not to be over-curious about them not to be fond of enjoying them nor troubled for the want of them never to indulge ourselves in unlawful Pleasures and to be very temperate in our use of lawful ones to be sure we must take care that the Spiritual part that the sense of God and of Religion be always predominant in us and this will be a principle of Life in us a principle of divine Sensations and Joys when this Body shall tumble into Dust. VI. If Death be our putting off these Bodies then the Resurrection from the Dead is the Re-union of Soul and Body the Soul does not die and therefore cannot be said to rise again from the Dead but it is the Body which like Seed falls into the Earth and springs up again more beautiful and glorious at the Resurrection of the Just. To believe the Resurrection of the Body or of the Flesh and to believe another Life after this are two very different things the Heathens believed a future State but never dreamt of the Resurrection of the Body which is the peculiar Article of the Christian Faith. And yet it is the Resurrection of our Bodies which is our Victory and Triumph over Death for Death was the Punishment of Adam's sin and those who are in a separate state still suffer the Curse of the Law Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Christ came to deliver us from this Curse by being made a Curse for us that is to deliver us from Death by dying for us But no man can be said to be delivered from Death till his body rise again for part of him is under the power of Death still while his body rots in the Grave nay he is properly in a state of Death while he is in a state of Separation of Soul and Body which is the true notion of Death And therefore St. Paul calls the Resurrection of the Body the destroying Death 1 Cor. 15. 25 26. He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet the last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death That is by the Resurrection of the Dead as appears from the whole scope of the place and is particularly expressed 54 55 c. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass that saying which is written Death is swallowed up in victory O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but blessed be God who hath given us the victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. This is the perfection and consummation of our reward when our Bodies shall be raised incorruptible and glorious when Christ shall change our vile Bodies and make them like to his own most glorious Body I doubt not but good men are in a very happy state before the Resurrection but yet their happiness is not complete for the very state of Separation is an imperfect state because a separate Soul is not a perfect Man a Man by the original Constitution of his Nature consists of Soul and Body and therefore his perfect happiness requires the united glory and happiness of both parts of the whole Man. Which is not considered by those who cannot apprehend any necessity why the Body should rise again since as they conceive the Soul might be as completely and perfectly happy without it But yet the Soul would not be an intire and perfect Man for a Man consists of Soul and Body a Soul in a state of Separation how happy soever otherwise it may be has still this mark of God's displeasure on it that it has lost its body and therefore the Reunion of our Souls and Bodies has at least this advantage in it that it is a perfect restoring of us to the Divine Favour that the badge and memorial of our Sin and Apostacy is done away in the Resurrection of our Bodies and therefore this is called the Adoption viz. the Redemption of our Bodies 8. Rom. 23. For then it is that God publickly owns us for his Sons when he raises our dead Bodies into a glorious and immortal Life And besides this I think we have no reason to doubt but the Reunion of Soul and Body will be a new addition of Happiness and Glory for though we cannot guess what the pleasures of glorified Bodies are yet sure we cannot imagine that when these earthly Bodies are the instruments of so many pleasures a spiritual and glorified Body should be of no use A Soul and Body cannot be vitally united but there must be a sympathy between them and receive mutual impressions from each other and then we need not doubt but that such glorified Bodies will highly minister though in a way unknown to us to the pleasures of a divine and perfect Soul will infinitely more contribute to the divine pleasures of the Mind then these earthly Bodies do to our sensual pleasures That all who have this hope and expectation may as St. Paul speaks earnestly groan within themselves waiting for the adoption even the redemption of our bodies 8. Rom. 23. This being the day of the Marriage of the Lamb this consummates our Happiness when our Bodies and Souls meet again not to disturb and oppose each other as they do in this World where the Flesh and the Spirit are at perpetual Enmity but to live in eternal Harmony and to heighten and inflame each others Joys Now this consideration that Death being a putting off these Bodies the Resurrection of the Dead must be the raising our Bodies into a new and immortal Life and the Reunion of them to our Souls suggests many useful thoughts to us For This teaches us how we are to use our Bodies how we are to prepare them for Immortality and Glory Death which is the separation of Soul and Body is the punishment of Sin and indeed it is the cure of it too for Sin is such a Leprosie as cannot be perfectly cleansed without pulling down the House which it has once infected But if we would have these Bodies raised up again immortal and glorious we must begin the Cleansing and Purification of them here We must be sanctified throughout both in body soul and spirit 1 Thess. 5. 23. Our Bodies must be the Temples of the Holy Ghost must be holy and consecrated places 1 Cor. 6. 19. must not be polluted with filthy Lusts if we would have them rebuilt again by the Divine Spirit after the desolations which Sin hath made Thus St. Paul tells us at large 8. Rom. 10 11 12 13. And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness That is that divine and holy Nature which we receive from
Christ will secure the life of our Souls and translate us to a happy state after death but it will not secure us from the necessity of dying Our Bodies must die as a punishment of Sin and putrifie in the Grave but yet they are not lost for ever for if the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Iesus from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit which dwelleth in you that is if your Bodies be cleansed and sanctified be the Temples of the Holy Spirit he will raise them up again into a new Life Therefore brethren we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh for if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live If ye subdue the fleshly principle if ye bring the Flesh into subjection to the Spirit not only your Souls shall live but your Bodies shall be raised again to immortal Life And this is a mighty obligation on us if we love our Bodies and would have them glorious and immortal not to pamper the Flesh and gratifie its appetites and lusts not to yeild your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity but to yeild your members servants to righteousness unto holiness that being made free from sin and becoming the servants of God ye may have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life As the same Apostle speaks 6. Rom. 19 22. it is our relation to Christ that our very Bodies are his Members it is our relation to the Holy Spirit that our Bodies are his Temples which entitles our Bodies to a glorious Resurrection But will Christ own such Bodies for his Members as are Members of a Harlot Will the Holy Spirit dwell in such a Temple as is defiled with impure Lusts And therefore such polluted Bodies will rise as they lay down in Dishonour will rise not to immortal Life but to eternal Death For can we think those Bodies well prepared for a glorious Resurrection to be refined into spiritual Bodies which are become ten times more Flesh than God made them which are the Instruments and the Tempters to all Impurity Is there any reason to expect that such a Body should rise again spiritual and glorious which expires in the flames of Lust which falls a Sacrifice in the quarrel of a Strumpet which sinks under the load of its own Excesses and Eats and Drinks itself into the Grave which scorns to die by Adam's sin but will die by its own without expecting till the Laws of Mortality according to the ordinary course of Nature must take place Holiness is the only principle of Immortality both to Soul and Body Those love their Bodies best those honour them most who make them instruments of Vertue who endeavour to refine and spiritualize them and leave nothing of fleshly appetites and inclinations in them those are kindest to their Bodies who consecrate them for Immortality who take care they shall rise again into the Partnership of eternal Joys All the severities of Mortification abstinence from bodily pleasures watchings Fastings hard lodging when they are instruments of a real Vertue not the arts of Superstition when they are intended to subdue our Lusts not to purchase a liberty of sinning are the most real expressions of honour and respect to these Bodies It shews how unwilling we are to part with them or to have them miserable how desirous we are of their advancement into eternal Glories for the less of Flesh they carry to the Grave with them the more glorious will they rise again This is offering up our Bodies a living Sacrifice when we intirely devote them to the service of God and such living Sacrifices shall live for ever for if God receives them a living Sacrifice he will preserve them to immortal Life But the highest honour we can do these Bodies and the noblest use we can put them to is to offer them up in a proper sence a Sacrifice to God that is willingly and chearfully to die for God when he calls us to suffering first to offer up our Souls to God in the pure flames of Love and Devotion and then freely to give up our Bodies to the Stake or to the Gibbet to wild Beasts or more savage Men. This vindicates our Bodies from the natural shame and reproach of Death what we call a natural Death is very inglorious it is a mark of dishonour because it is a punishment of Sin Such Bodies at best are sown in dishonour and corruption as St. Paul speaks but to die a Martyr to fall a Sacrifice to God this is a glorious Death this is not to yeild to the Laws of Mortality to Necessity and Fate but to give back our Bodies to God who gave them to us and he will keep that which we have committed to his trust to a glorious Resurrection and it will be a surprizing and astonishing Glory with which such Bodies shall rise again as have suffered for their Lord for if we suffer with him we shall also be glorified together Which seems to imply that those shall nearest resemble the Glory of Christ himself who suffer as he did This is the way to make our Bodies immortal and glorious We cannot keep them long here they are corruptible Bodies and will tumble into Dust we must part with them for a while and if ever we expect and desire a happy meeting again we must use them with modesty and reverence now We dishonour our Bodies in this World when we make them instruments of Wickedness and Lust and lay an eternal foundation of shame and infamy for them in the next World it is a mortal and killing love to cherish the fleshly Principle to make provision for the Flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof but if you love your Bodies make them immortal that though they die they may rise again out of their Graves with a youthful vigour and beauty that they may live for ever without pain or sickness without the decays of age or the interruptions of sleep or the fatigue and weariness of labour without wanting either food or raiment without the least remains of corruptions without knowing what it is to tempt or to be tempted without the least uneasie thought the least disappointment the least care in the full and blissful enjoyment of the Eternal and Soveraign Good. SECT III. Death considered as our Entrance upon a new and unknown State of Life III. LEt us now consider Death as it is an Entrance upon a new and unknown State of Life for it is a new thing to us to live without these Bodies it is what we have never tried yet and we cannot guess how we shall feel ourselves when we are stript of Flesh and Blood what entertainments we shall find in that place where there is neither eating nor drinking neither marrying nor giving in marriage what kind of
sinned and brought Death into the World and thus Death passed upon all men for his sin notwithstanding they themselves were Sinners for tho' they were Sinners yet that they died was not owing to their own sins because they had not sinned against any Law which threatned death but to the sin of Adam and therefore in a proper sence in Adam all die Now this is thought very hard that the sin of Adam should bring death upon all his Posterity that one man sinned and all men must die and therefore I suppose no man will think it improper to my present Argument to give you such an account of this matter as will evidently justifie the Wisdom and Goodness as well as the Justice of GOD in it I. In the first place then I observe that an immortal Life in this World is not the original Right of earthly Creatures but was wholly owing to the Grace and Favour of God. I call that an original Right which is founded in the Nature of things for otherwise properly speaking no Creatures have any right either to being or to subsistance which is a continuance in being It is the Goodness and the Power of God which both made the World and upholds and sustains all things in being And therefore Plato confesses that the inferiour Gods those immortal Spirits which he thought worthy of Divine Honours were both made by the Supreme God and did subsist by his Will for He who made all things can annihilate them again when he pleases and therefore their Subsistence is as much owing to the Divine Goodness as their Creation But yet there is a great difference between the natural gift and bounty of God and what is supernatural or above the nature of things What God makes by nature immortal so that it has no principles of Mortality in its constitution Immortality may be said to be its natural Right because it is by nature immortal as Spirits and the Souls of Men are And in this case it would be thought very hard that a whole race of immortal Beings should be made mortal for the sin of one which would be to deprive them of their natural Right to Immortality without their own fault But when any Creature is immortal not by Nature but by supernatural Grace God may bestow this supernatural Immortality upon what conditions he pleases and take the forfeiture of it when he sees fit and this was the case of Man in Innocence His Body was not by Nature immortal for a Body made of Dust will naturally resolve into Dust again and therefore without a supernatural power an earthly Body must die for which reason God provided a remedy against Mortality the Tree of Life which he planted in Paradise and without which man could not be immortal so that Mortality was a necessary consequence of his losing Paradise for when he was banished from the Tree of Life he could have no Remedy nor Preservative against Death Now I suppose no man will question but God might very justly turn Adam out of Paradise for his disobedience and then he must die and all his Posterity die in him for he being by Nature mortal must beget mortal Children and having forfeited the Tree of Life he and his Posterity who are all shut out of Paradise with him must necessarily die Which takes nothing from them to which any man had a right for no man had a natural right to Paradise or the Tree of Life but only leaves them to those Laws of Mortality to which an earthly Creature is naturally subject God had promised Paradise and the Tree of Life to no man but to Adam himself whom he created and placed in Paradise and therefore he took nothing away from any man but from Adam when he thrust him out of Paradise Children indeed must follow the condition of their Parents had Adam preserved his right to the Tree of Life we had enjoyed it too but he forfeiting it we lost it in him and in him die We lost I say not any thing that we had a right to but such a supernatural Priviledge as we might have had had he preserved his Innocence and this is a sufficient Vindication of the Justice of God in it He has done us no injury we are by nature mortal Creatures and he leaves us in that mortal state and to withdraw favours upon a reasonable provocation is neither hard nor unjust II. For we must consider farther when Sin was once entred into the World an immortal Life here became impossible without a constant series of Miracles Adam had sinned and thereby corrupted his own nature and therefore must necessarily propagate a corrupt nature to his Posterity His earthly Passions were broke loose he now knew good and evil and therefore was in the hands of his own counsel to refuse or choose the good or evil and when the Animal Life was once awakned in him there was no great dispute which way his affections would incline To be sure it is evident enough in his Posterity whose boisterous passions act such Tragedies in the World. Now suppose in a state of Innocence that the Tree of Life would have preserved men immortal when no man would injure himself nor another when there was no danger from wild Beasts or an intemperate Air or poisonous Herbs yet I suppose no man will say but that even in Paradise itself could we suppose any such thing Adam might have been devoured by a Beast or killed with a Stab at the Heart or had there been any Poison there it would have killed him had he eaten or drunk it or else he had another kind of Body in Paradise than we have now for I am sure that these things would kill us Consider then how impossible it is that in this fallen and apostate State God should preserve Man immortal without working Miracles every minute Mens passions are now very unruly and they fall out with one another and will kill one another if they can of which the World had a very early example in Gain who slew his Brother Abel and all those Murders and bloody Wars since that day put this matter out of doubt Now this can never be prevented unless God should make our Bodies invulnerable which a body of flesh and blood cannot be without a Miracle some die by their own hands others by wild Beasts others by evil Accidents and there are so many ways of destroying these brittle Bodies that it is the greatest wonder that they last so long and yet Adam's body in Paradise was as very Earth and as brittle as our Bodies are but all this had been prevented had men continued innocent they would not then have quarrelled or fought they would not have died by their own hands nor drunk themselves into a Feavour nor over-loaded Nature with riotous Excesses there had been no wild Beasts to devour no infectious Air or poisonous Herbs and then the Tree of Life would have repaired all the decays of Nature
and preserved a perpetual Youth but in this state we are now the Tree of Life could not preserve us immortal if a Sword or Poison can kill which shews us how impossible it was but that Sin and Death must come into the World together Man might have been immortal had he never sinned but brutish and ungovern'd passions will destroy us without a Miracle And therefore we have no reason now to quarrel at the Divine Providence that we are mortal for in the ordinary course of Providence it is impossible it should be otherwise III. Considering what the state of this World necessarily is since the Fall of Man an immortal Life here is not desireable No state ought to be immortal if it be designed as an act of favour and kindness but what is completely happy but this World is far enough from being such a state Some few years give wise men enough of it tho' they are not oppressed with any great Calamities and there are a great many Miseries which nothing but Death can give relief to This puts an end to the sorrows of the Poor of the Oppressed of the Persecuted it is a Haven of Rest after all the Tempests of a troublesome World it knocks off the Prisoners Shackles and sets him at liberty it dries up the Tears of the Widdows and Fatherless it cases the complaints of a hungry Belly and naked Back it tames the proudest Tyrants and restores Peace to the World it puts an end to all our Labours and supports men under their present Adversities especially when they have a prospect of a better life after this The labour and the misery of Man under the Sun is very great but it would be intolerable were it endless and therefore since Sin is entred into the World and so many necessary miseries and calamities attend it it is an act of Goodness as well as Justice in God to shorten this miserable life and transplant good men into a more happy as well as immortal State. IV. Since the Fall of Man Mortality and Death is necessary to the good Government of the World nothing else can give check to some mens Wickedness but either the fear of Death or the execution of it some men are so outragiously wicked that nothing can put a stop to them and prevent that mischief they do in the World but to cut them off This is the reason of capital punishments among men to remove those out of the World who will be a plague to Mankind while they live in it For this reason God destroyed the whole Race of Mankind by a Deluge of Water excepting Noah and his Family because they were incurably wicked For this reason he sends Plagues and Famines and Sword to correct the exorbitant growth of Wickedness to lessen the numbers of Sinners and to lay restraints on them And if the World be such a Bedlam as it is under all these restraints what would it be were it filled with immortal Sinners Ever since the Fall of Adam there always was and ever will be a mixture of good and bad men in the World and Justice requires that God should reward the Good and punish the Wicked But that cannot be done in this World for these present external Enjoyments are not the proper Rewards of Vertue There is no complete Happiness here man was never turned into this World till he sinned and was flung out of Paradise which is an argument that God never intended this World for a place of Reward and perfect Happiness nor is this World a proper place for the final punishment of bad Men because good Men live among them and without a Miracle bad Men cannot be greatly punished but good Men must share with them and were all bad Men punisht to their deserts it would make this World the very Image and Picture of Hell which would be a very unfit place for good Men to live and to be happy in As much as good Men suffer from the Wicked in this World it is much more tolerable then to have their ears filled with the perpetual cries of such miserable Sinners and their eyes terrified with such perpetual and amazing executions Good and bad Men must be separated before the one can be finally rewarded or the other punished and such a separation as this cannot be made in this World but must be reserved for the next So that considering the fallen State of Man it was not fitting it was not for the good of Mankind that they should be immortal here Both the Wisdom and Goodness and Justice of God required that Man should die which is an abundant Justification of this divine Decree That it is appointed for men once to die V. As a farther Justification of the Divine Goodness in this we may observe that before God pronounced that Sentence on Adam Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return he expresly promised that the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head 3. Gen. 15. In his Curse upon the Serpent who beguiled Eve I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel Which contains the promise of sending Christ into the World who by death should destroy him who had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage i. e. before he denounces the Sentence of Death against Man he promises a Saviour and Deliverer who should triumph over Death and raise our dead Bodies out of the dust immortal and glorious Here is a most admirable mixture of Mercy and Judgment Man had forfeited an earthly Immortality and must die but before God would denounce the Sentence of Death against him he promises to raise up his dead Body again to a new and endless Life And have we any reason to complain then that God has dealt hardly with us in involving us in the sad consequences of Adam's Sin and exposing us to a temporal Death when he has promised to raise us from the Dead again and to bestow a more glorious Immortality on us which we shall never lose When Man had sinned it was necessary that he should die because he could never be completely and perfectly happy in this World as you have already heard and the only possible way to make him happy was to translate him into another World and to bestow a better Immortality on him This God has done and that in a very stupendious way by giving his own Son to die for us and now we have little reason to complain that we all die in Adam since we are made alive in Christ to have died in Adam never to have lived more had indeed been very severe upon Mankind but when death signifies only a necessity of going out of these Bodies and living without them for some time in order to re-assume them again immortal and glorious we
have no reason to think this any great hurt Nay indeed if we consider things aright the Divine Goodness has improved the Fall of Adam to the raising of Mankind to a more happy and perfect state for though Paradise where God placed Adam in Innocence was a happier state of life than this World freed from all the disorders of a mortal Body and from all the necessary cares and troubles of this Life yet you 'll all grant that Heaven is a happier place than an earthly Paradise and therefore it is more for our happiness to be translated from Earth to Heaven than to have lived always in an earthly Paradise You will all grant that the state of good men when they go out of these Bodies before the Resurrection is a happier life than Paradise was for it is to be with Christ as St. Paul tells us which is far better 1. Phil. 23. And when our Bodies rise again from the Dead you will grant they will be more glorious Bodies than Adam's was in Innocence For the first man was of the earth earthy but the second man is the Lord from heaven 1 Cor. 15. 47. Adam had an earthly mortal Body tho' it should have been immortal by Grace but at the Resurrection our Bodies shall be fashioned like unto Christ's most glorious Body The righteous shall shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of the Father that as we have born the image of the earthy we shall also bear the image of the heavenly 1 Cor. 15 49. So that our Redemption by Christ has infinitely the advantage of Adam's Fall and we have no reason to complain That by man came death since by man also came the resurrection of the dead That St. Paul might well magnifie the Grace of God in our Redemption by Christ above his Justice and Severity in punshing Adam's Sin with Death 5. Rom. 15 16 17. But not as the offence so also is the free gift For if through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Iesus Christ hath abounded unto many And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift for the judgment was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto justification For if by one man's offence death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Iesus Christ. Where the Apostle magnifies the Grace of God upon a fourfold account 1. That Death was the just Reward of Sin it came by the offence of one and was an act of Justice in God whereas our Redemption by Christ is the Gift of Grace the free Gift which we had no just claim to 2. That by Christ we are not only delivered from the effects of Adam's Sin but from the guilt of our own For though the judgement was by one to condemnation the free gift is of many offences unto justification 3. That though we die in Adam we are not barely made alive again in Christ but shall reign in life by one Iesus Christ which is a much happier Life than what we lost in Adam 4. That as we die by one man's offence so we live by one too By the righteousness of one the free gift comes upon all men unto justification of life We have no reason to complain that the Sin of Adam is imputed to us to Death if the Righteousness of Christ purchase for us eternal Life The first was a necessary consequence of Adam's losing Paradise the second is wholly owing to the Grace of God. Thus we see what it is that makes us mortal God did not make Death he created us in a happy and immortal state but by man sin entred into the world and death by sin What ever aversion then we have to Death should beget in us a greater horrour of Sin which did not only at first make us mortal but is to this day both the cause of Death and the Sting of it No degree indeed of Vertue now can preserve us from dying but yet Vertue may prolong our lives and make them happy while sin very often hastens us to the Grave and cuts us off in the very midst of our days An intemperate and lustful man destroys the most vigorous constitution of Body dies of a Feavour or a Dropsie of Rottenness and Consumptions others fall a Sacrifice to private Revenge or publick Justice or a Divine Vengeance for the wicked shall not live out half their days However setting aside some little natural aversions which are more easily conquered and Death were a very innocent harmless nay desirable thing did not Sin give a sting to it and terrifie us with the thoughts of that Judgment which is to follow quarrel not then at the Divine Justice in appointing Death God is very good as well as just in it but vent all your indignation against Sin pull out this sting of Death and then you will see nothing but smiles and charms in it then it is nothing but putting off these mortal Bodies to reassume them again with all the advantages of an immortal Youth It is certain indeed we must die this is appointed for us and the very certainty of our death will teach us that Wisdom which may help us to regain a better Immortality then we have lost SECT II. How to improve this Consideration that we must certainly Die. FOr 1. if it be certain that we must Die this should teach us frequently to think of Death to keep it always in our eye and view For why should we cast off the thoughts of that which will certainly come especially when it is so necessary to the good government of our lives to remember that we must die If we must die I think it concerns us to take care that we may die happily and that depends upon our living well and nothing has such a powerful influence upon the good government of our lives as the thoughts of Death I have already shewed you what Wisdom Death will teach us but no man will learn this who does not consider what it is to die and no man will practise it who does not often remember that he must die but he that lives under a constant sence of Death has a perpetual Antidote against the Follies and Vanities of this World and a perpetual Spur to Vertue When such a man finds his desires after this World enlarge beyond not onely the wants but the conveniencies of Nature Thou Fool says he to himself what is the meaning of all this what kindles this insatiable thirst of Riches why must there be no end of adding House to House and Field to Field is this World thy home is this thy abiding City dost thou hope to take up an eternal Rest here Vain man thou must shortly remove thy dwelling and then whose shall all these things be Death will shortly close thy eyes
wise man will propose to himself because they are not safe and there are so many occasions to put these men in mind of Death that it is a very hard thing not to think of it and when ever they do it chills their Blood and Spirits and draws a black and melancholly Veil over all the Glories in the World. How are such men surprized when any danger approaches when Death comes within view and shews his Sithe and only some few sands at the bottom of the Glass This is a very frightful sight to men who are not prepared to die and yet should they give themselves liberty to think in what danger they live every minute how many thousand accidents may cut them off which they can neither foresee nor prevent fear and horror and consternation would be their constant entertainment till they could think of Death without fear till they were reconciled to the thoughts of dying by great and certain hopes of a better life after death So that no man can live happily if he lives like a man with his thoughts and reason and consideration about him but he who takes care betimes to prepare for Death and another World Till this be done a wise man will see himself always in danger and then he must always fear but he is a happy man who knows and considers himself to be mortal and is not afraid to die his pleasures and enjoyments are sincere and unmixt never disturbed with a Hand writing upon the Wall nor with some secret qualms and misgivings of mind he is not terrified with present dangers at least not amazed and distracted with them A man who is delivered from the fears of Death fears nothing else in excess but God and fear is so troublesome a passion that nothing is more for the happiness of our lives than to be delivered from it 2. As a consequent of this an early Preparation for Death will support men under all the troubles and calamities of this life There are so many troubles that Mankind are exposed to in this World that no man must expect to escape them all nay there are a great many troubles which are unsupportable to humane Nature which there can be no releif for in this World The hopes and expectations of a better life are in most cases the safest retreat a man may bear his present sufferings with some courage when he knows that he shall quickly see an end of them that Death will put an end to them and place him out of their reach For there the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest there the prisoners rest together they hear not the voice of the oppressor the small and great are there and the servant is free from his master 3. Job 17 18 19. So that in many cases the thoughts and expectations of Death is the only thing that can support us under present sufferings but while the thoughts of Death itself are terrible to us this will be a poor comfort Men who are under the sence of guilt are more afraid of Death than they are of all the Evils of this World Whatever their present sufferings are they are not so terrible as lakes of fire and brimstone the worm that never dieth and the fire that never goeth out So that such men while they are under the fears and terrors of Death have nothing to support them under present miseries The next World which Death puts us into the possession of is a very delightful prospect to good men there they see the rewards of their labour and sufferings of their faith and patience They can suffer shame and reproach and take joyfully the spoiling of their goods since these light afflictions which are but for a season will work for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory But men who are not prepared to die while they are afraid of Death can find no relief in the thoughts of it and therefore want the greatest support that we can have in this life against the sufferings of it The sooner we prepare to die the sooner we are delivered from the fears of Death and then the hope of a better life will carry us chearfully through this World whatever storms we meet with 3ly Since we must certainly die it makes it extreamly reasonable to sacrifice our lives to God whenever he calls for them that is rather to chuse to die a little before our time then to renounce God or to give his Worship to Idols or any created Beings or to corrupt the Faith and Religion of Christ There are arguments indeed enough to encourage Christians to Martyrdom when God calls them to suffer for his sake the love of Christ in dying for us is a sufficient reason why we should chearfully die for him and the great rewards of Martyrdom that glorious Crown which is reserved for such Conquerors made the Primitive Christians ambitious of it It is certain there is no hurt in it nay that it is a peculiar favour to die for Christ because those persons who were most dear to him were crowned with Martyrdom but our present argument shews us at what an easie rate we may purchase so glorious a Crown for we part with nothing for it We die for God and we must die whether we die Martyrs or not and what man then who knows he must die and believes the rewards of Martyrdom can think it so terrible to die a Martyr No good Christian can think that he loses any thing by the bargain to exchange this life for a better for as many years as he goes sooner out of this World then he should have done by the course of Nature so many years he gets sooner to Heaven and I suppose that is no great loss It is indeed a noble expression of our love to God and our entire obedience and subjection to him and of a perfect trust in him to part with our lives for his sake but what can a man who knows he must die do less for God then this to part with a life which he cannot keep willingly to lay down a life for God which would shortly be taken from him whether he will or not 4ly This shews us also what little reason we have to be afraid of the power of Men the utmost they can do is to kill the Body a mortal Body which will die whether they kill it or not which is no mighty argument of power no more than it is to break a brittle Glass nor any great hurt to us no more than it is to die which we are all born to and which is no injury to a good man and therefore our Saviour's counsel is very reasonable 12. Luke 4 5. Be not afraid of them who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do but I will forewarn you whom you shall fear Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear
him This is very reasonable when the fear of God and men is opposed to each other which is the only case our Saviour supposes No man ought foolishly to fling away his life nor to provoke and affront Princes who have the power of Life and Death this is not to die like a Martyr but like a Fool or a Rebel But when a Prince threatens Death and God threatens Damnation then our Saviour's counsel takes place not to fear men but God for indeed God's power in this is equal to mens at least men can kill for men are mortal and may be killed and this is only for a mortal Creature to die a little out of order but God can kill too and thus far the case is the same It is true most men are of the mind in such a case rather to trust God then men because he does not always punish in this World nor execute a speedy vengeance And yet when our Saviour takes notice that God kills as well as men it seems to intimate to us that such Apostates who rather chuse to provoke God then men may meet with their deserts in this World for no man is secure that God will not punish him in this World and Apostates of all others have least reason to expect it Those who renounce God for fear of men are the fittest persons to be examples of a sudden Vengeance But then when men have killed they can do no more they cannot kill the Soul and here the power of God and men is very unequal for when he has killed he can cast both Body and Soul into Hell fire This is a very formidable power indeed and we have reason to fear him but the power of men who can only kill a mortal Body is not very terrible it ought not to fright us into any sin which will make us obnoxious to that more terrible Power which can destroy the Soul. CHAP. III. Concerning the Time of our Death and the proper Improvement of it LEt us now consider the time of our Death which is once but when uncertain Now when I say the time of our Death is uncertain I need not tell you that I mean only it is uncertain to us that is that no man knows when he shall die for God certainly knows when we shall die because he knows all things and therefore with respect to the foreknowledge of God the time of our Death is certain Thus much is certain as to Death that we must all die and it is certain also that Death is not far off because we know our lives are very short before the Flood men lived many hundred years but it is a great while now since the Psalmist observed that the ordinary term of humane life had very narrow bounds set to it The days of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we flie away 90. Psal. 10. There are some exceptions from this general Rule but this is the ordinary period of humane life when it is spun out to the greatest length and therefore within this term we may reasonably expect it for in the ordinary course of Nature our Bodies are not made to last much longer Thus far we are certain but then how much of this time we shall run out how soon or how late we shall die we know not for we see no age exempted from Death some expire in the Cradle and at their Mother's Breasts others in the heat and vigour of youth others survive to a decrepit age and it may be follow their whole Family to their Graves Death very often surprizeth us when we least think of it without giving us any warning of its approach and that is proof enough that the time of our Death is unknown and uncertain to us But these things deserve to be particularly discoursed and therefore with reference to the time of our Death I shall observe these four things not so much to explain them for most of them are plain enough of themselves as to improve them for the government of our lives I. That the general Period of Humane Life which is the same thing with the Time of our Death is fixt and determin'd by God. II. That the particular time of every Man's Death though it be foreknown by God who foreknows all things yet it does not appear that it is peremtorily decreed and determined by God. III. That the particular time when any of us shall die is unknown and uncertain to us IV. That we must die but once It is appointed for all men once to die SECT I. That the general Period of Humane Life is fixt and determin'd by GOD and that it is but very short I. THat the general Period of Humane Life which is the same thing with the Time of our Death is fixt and determin'd by God That is there is a time set to humane Life beyond which no man shall live as Iob speaks 14 Job 5. His days are determined the number of his months are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass Which does not refer to the period of every particular man's life but is spoken of Man in general that there are fixt bounds set to humane Life which no man can exceed What these bounds are God has not expresly declared but that must be learnt from Observation Such a time as most commonly puts a period to mens lives who live longest may generally pass for the common measure of humane Life though there may be some few exceptions Before the Flood no man lived a thousand years and therefore we may conclude that the longest term of humane Life after the Sentence of Death was passed on man was confined within a thousand years Methusalah who was the longest liver lived but nine hundred sixty nine years and he died so that no man ever lived a thousand years And comparing this Observation with that Promise of a thousand years reign with Christ which is called the first Resurrection and is the portion only of Martyrs and Confessors and pure and sincere Christians 20 Revel I have been apt to conclude that to live a thousand years is the priviledge only of immortal Creatures that if Adam had continued innocent he should have lived no longer on Earth but have been translated to Heaven without dying for this thousand 's years reign of the Saints with Christ whatever that signifies seems to be intended as a reparation of that Death which they fell under by Adam's sin but then these thousand years do not put an end to the happiness of these glorious Saints but they are immortal Creatures and though this reign with Christ continues but a thousand years their happiness shall have no end though the Scene may change and vary for over such men the second death hath no power Or else this thousand years reign with Christ must
signifie an eternal and unchangable Kingdom a thousand years being a certain earnest of Immortality but there is an unreasonable Objection against that because we read of the expiring of these thousand years and what shall come after them even the final Judgment of all the World. But this is a great Mystery which we must not hope perfectly to understand till we see the blessed accomplishment of it But though before the Flood some persons lived very near the thousand years yet after the Flood the term of life was much shortned Some think this was done by God when he pronounced that Sentence 6 Gen. 3. And the Lord said My spirit shall not always strive with man for that he also is flesh yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years As if God had then decreed that the life of man should not exceed an hundred and twenty years but this does not agree with that account we have of mens lives after the Flood for not only Noah and his Sons who were with him in the Ark lived much longer than this after the Flood but Arphazad lived five hundred and thirty years Salah four hundred and three years Eber four hundred and thirty years and Abraham himself a hundred seventy five years and therefore this hundred and twenty years cannot refer to the ordinary term of man's life but to the continuance of God's patience with that wicked World before he would bring the Flood upon them to destroy that corrupt Generation of Men that is that he would bear with them a hundred and twenty years before he would send the Flood to destroy them But afterwards by degrees life was shortned insomuch that though Moses himself lived a great deal longer yet if the 90 Psalm were composed by him as the Title tells us it was the ordinary term of life in his days was but threescore and ten or fourscore years 10 v. The days of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow so soon passeth it away and it is gone And this has continued the ordinary measure of life ever since which is so very short that David might well say Behold thou hast made my days as an hand-breadth and mine age is as nothing before thee verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity 39 Psal. 5. I shall not scrupulously inquire into the reason of this great change why our lives are reduced into so narrow a compass Some will not believe that it was so but think that there is a mistake in the manner of the account that when they are said to live eight or nine hundred years they computed their years by the Moon not by the Sun that is their years were months twelve of which make but one of our years and then indeed the longest livers of them did not live so long as many men do at this day for Methusalah himself who lived nine hundred sixty nine years according to this computation of months for years lived but fourscore years and five months But it is very absurd to imagine that Moses should use two such different accounts of time that sometimes by a year he should mean no more than a month and sometimes twelve months without giving the least notice of it which is unpardonable in any Historian And therefore others complain much that they were not born in those days when the life of man was prolonged for so many hundred years There had been some comfort in living then when they enjoyed all the vigour and gaiety of youth and could relish the pleasure of life for seven eight or nine hundred years A blessing which men would purchase at any rate in our days but now we can scarce turn ourselves about in the World but we are admonished by gray Hairs or the sensible decays of Nature to prepare for our Winding-sheet And therefore for the farther improvement of this argument I shall 1. shew you what little reason we have to complain of the Shortness of Life 2. What wise use we are to make of it SECT II. What little reason we have to complain of the Shortness of Humane Life 1. WHat little reason we have to complain of the Shortness of Life and the too hasty Approaches of Death to us For 1. such a long Life is not reconcileable with the present State of the World. And 2ly our Lives are long enough for all the wise purposes of living 1. Such a long Life is not reconcileable with the present state of the World. What the state of the World was before the Flood in what manner they lived and how they employed their time we cannot tell for Moses has given no account of it but taking the World as it is and as we find it I dare undertake to convince those men who are most apt to complain of the shortness of Life that it would not be for the general Happiness of Mankind to have it much longer For 1. the World is at present very unequally divided some have a large share and portion of it others have nothing but what they earn by very hard Labour or extort from other mens Charity by their restless Importunities or gain by more ungodly Arts Now though the Rich and Prosperous who have the World at command and live in ease and pleasure would be very well contented to spend some hundred years in this World yet I should think fifty or threescore years abundantly enough for Slaves and Beggars enough to spend in Hunger and Want in a Jaol and a Prison And those who are so foolish as not to think this enough owe a great deal to the wisdom and goodness of God that he does So that the greatest part of Mankind have great reason to be contented with the shortness of Life because they have no temptation to wish it longer 2ly The present state of this World requires a more quick Succession the World is pretty well peopled and is divided among its present Inhabitants and but very few in comparison as I observed before have any considerable share in the division Now let us but suppose that all our Ancestors who lived an hundred or two hundred years ago were alive still and possessed their old Estates and Honours what had become of this present Generation of Men who have now taken their places and make as great a show and busle in the World as they did And if you look back three or four or five hundred years the case is still so much the worse the World would be over-peopl'd and where there is one poor miserable man now there must have been five hundred or the World must have been common and all men reduced to the same level which I believe the rich and happy People who are so fond of long Life would not like very well This would utterly undo our young prodigal Heirs were their hopes of Succession three or four hundred
years off who as short as life is now think their Fathers make very little hast to their Graves this would spoil their trade of spending their Estates before they have them and make them live a dull sober life whether they would or no and such a life I know they don't think worth having And therefore I hope at least they will not make the shortness of their Fathers lives an argument against Providence and yet such kind of Sparks as these are commonly the Wits that set up for Atheism and when it is put into their heads quarrel with every thing which they fondly conceive will weaken the belief of a God and a Providence and among other things with the shortness of Life which they have little reason to do when they so often out-live their Estates 3ly The World is very bad as it is so bad that good men scarce know how to spend fifty or threescore years in it but consider how bad it would probably be were the life of man extended to six seven or eight hundred years If so near a prospect of the other World as forty or fifty years cannot restrain men from the greatest Villanies what would they do if they could as reasonably suppose Death to be three or four hundred years off If men make such improvements in Wickedness in twenty or thirty years what would they do in hundreds And what a blessed place then would this World be to live in We see in the old World when the life of man was drawn out to so great a length the wickedness of Mankind grew so insufferable that it repented God he had made man and he resolved to destroy that whole Generation excepting Noah and his Family and the most probable account that can be given how they came to grow so universally wicked is the long and prosperous lives of such wicked men who by degrees corrupted others and they others till there was but one righteous Family left and no other remedy left but to destroy them all leaving only that righteous Family as the seed and future hopes of the new World. And when God had determined in himself and promised to Noah never to destroy the World again by such an universal Destruction till the last and final Judgment it was necessary by degrees to shorten the lives of men which was the most effectual means to make them more governable and to remove bad examples out of the World which would hinder the spreading of the infection and people and reform the World again by new examples of Piety and Vertue for when there are such quick successions of men there are few Ages but have some great and brave examples which give a new and better Spirit to the World. Many other things might be added to convince those who complain of the shortness of humane Life that it would be no desirable thing as the state of the World now is to live seven or eight hundred years in it but this I suppose is enough if I can make good the second thing I proposed That our lives are long enough for all the wise purposes of living Now I will not promise myself to satisfie all men in this matter for those who think it the only end of living to eat and drink and enjoy the more impure delights of flesh and sence will never be satisfied that threescore and ten years are as good as eight or nine hundred for this purpose for the longer they enjoy these pleasures and the oftner they repeat them the better it is But these men ought to be convinced that this is not the true end of living that these are only means to preserve life which God has sweetned with such proper satisfactions or made the neglect of them so uneasie and painful that no man might forget to take care to preserve himself but man was made at first for higher and nobler ends and since by the sin of Adam we are all become mortal this life is not for itself but in order to a better life We come into this World not to stay here or to take up our abode and rest for then indeed the longer we lived the better but this World is only a state of trial and discipline to exercise our Vertues to perfect our minds to prepare and qualifie ourselves for the more pure and refined and spiritual enjoyments of the other World We come into this World not so much to enjoy as to conquer it and to triumph over it to baffle its temptations to despise its flatteries and to endure its terrors and if we live long enough to do this we live long enough and ought to thank God that our work and labour and temptations are at an end For what labouring man is not glad that his work is over and he may go to rest What Mariner is not glad that he has weathered all storms and steered a safe course to his desired Haven There are two things necessary to the improvement of our Minds Knowledge and Vertue And as God has shortned our Lives so he has shortned our Work too and given us a more easie and compendious way to both Knowledge indeed is an infinite and endless thing and it is impossible thoroughly to satisfie that appetite in great and genorous Minds in this blind and obscure state of life but the comfort is all the knowledge that is necessary to carry us to Heaven is now plain and easie and will not take up many years to learn it for This is life eternal to know God and Iesus Christ whom he hath sent which is plainly revealed to us in the Gospel And when we get to Heaven we shall quickly understand all the difficulties of Nature and Providence in another manner then the greatest Philosophers do now or can do though they should live many hundred years And as for Vertue we have as short and easie a way to it The plainest and most perfect Precepts the most admirable Examples the most encouraging and inviting Promises and which is more than all the most powerful Assistances of the Divine Spirit to renew and sanctifie us and he who is not reformed by these divine and supernatural Methods of Grace in forty or fifty years is not likely to be the better for them though he should live to Methusalah's age As for doing good I confess the longer a good man lives the more good he will do and make himself the more useful to the World but this is God's care and whenever he calls him out of the World he excuses him from doing any more good in it The truth is nothing could be more improper under the state of the Gospel then such a long Life as worldly men are very fond of for our Saviour has taught us to expect Persecutions and Sufferings for his Name and this is very often the portion of true and sincere Christians that St. Paul could say If in this life only we had hope we were of all men
the most miserable Thanks be to God it is not always so but when it is it would be too great a temptation for humane Nature to live some hundred years in a state of Persecution as they might if they and the persecuting Prince should live so long Nay such a long life as these men talk of would greatly weaken the Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel which are all absent and unseen things to be expected in the other World but if the next World were so many hundred years off both the Promises and Threatnings of it would lose their effect upon the generality of Mankind Nay it might be thought very hard upon good men who are taught by the Gospel of Christ to live above this World and to have a very mean opinion of and a great indifferency to all the delights of it to live so many hundred years in it not so much to enjoy it as to despise it and to contend with it And it is not less hard for men who are transported with the ravishing hopes and expectations of a better life whose hearts and conversations are already in Heaven to be kept so long out of it This is a severe trial of their patience for hope when it is so long delayed is a very troublesome and uneasie passion and though few men long to die yet a great many good men do very impatiently long to be in Heaven and can be contented whenever God pleases to submit to dying though with some natural reluctancy that they may get to Heaven In short this life is long enough for a Race for a Warfare for a Pilgrimage it is long enough to fight and contend with this World and all the Temptations of it it is long enough to know this World to discover the Vanity of it and to live above it it is long enough by the Grace of God to purge and refine our minds and to prepare ourselves to live for ever in God's presence and when we are in any measure prepared for Heaven and possessed with great and passionate desires of it we shall think it a great deal too long to be kept out of it SECT III. What use to make of the fixt Term of Humane Life 2. LEt us consider what wise use is to be made of this and here are two things distinctly to be considered 1. That the general Term of humane Life is fixt and determined by God. 2. That this common Term and Period of Life at the utmost extent of it is but very short 1. That the general Term of humane Life is fixt and determined by God and this is capable of very wise improvements For 1. When we know that we cannot live above threescore or fourscore years or some few years over or under we should not extend our hopes and expectations and designs beyond this term 2. We should frequently count our days and observe how our lives wast and draw near to Eternity 3. When this Period draws nigh and Death comes within view it more especially concerns us to apply ourselves to a more serious and solemn preparation for Death 1. We should not extend our hopes and expectations and designs beyond this term which God has fixt for the conclusion of our lives We should not live as if we were immortal Creatures who are never to die for if God have set bounds to our lives it is absurd for us to expect to live any longer unless we hope to alter the Decrees of Heaven And yet it is more absurd if it be possible to extend our hopes and desires our projects and designs for this World beyond the term of our living here for how unreasonable is it for us to trouble ourselves about this World longer then we are like to continue in it and yet if this were observed it would ease us of a great deal of labour and care and deliver the World from those great troubles and disorders which the designs and projects for future Ages create Men might see some end of their Labours and of their Cares of increasing Riches and adding House to House and Field to Field did they stint their desires with their lives did they consider how long they were to live and what is a sufficient and necessary provision for their continuance here whereas now the generality of Mankind drudge on to the last moment they have to live and still heap up riches till they know no end of them as if their lives and their enjoyment of them were to have no end neither The only tolerable Excuse that can be made for this is the care of Posterity to leave a liberal provision for Children that they may live happily after us But this indeed is rather an Excuse than a Reason for thus we see it is when there is no such reason for it when men have no Children to provide for nor it may be any Relations for whom they are much concerned on when they have a sufficient provision for all their Children to encourage their Industry and Vertue though not to maintain them in Idleness and Vice which no wise and good Father would desire nay it may be when they have no other Heir to an over-grown Estate but either a Daughter whose fortune may make her a rich Prey as is too often seen or a prodigal Son who is ruined already by the expectation of so great a Fortune and will quickly be even with his Fortune and ruine that when he has it A competent provision for Children is a just reason to continue our industry though we have enough for our selves as long as we live but to make them rich and great is not The Piety and Charity of Parents which entails a Blessing upon their Posterity and an industrious and vertuous Education of Children is a better Inheritance for them than a great Estate But men who are so intent to the very last upon encreasing their Estates seldom do it for any other reason but to satisfie their own insatiable thirst which is to hoard up riches for a time when they can't enjoy them to provide for their living in this World a much longer time than they know they can possibly live in it This is much greater folly than the man in the Parable was guilty of whose Ground brought forth plentifully and he pulled down his Barns and built greater and said to his soul Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry He was so wise as to know when he had enough and when it was fit to retire and take his ease Yet God said unto him Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee and then whose shall all these things be which thou hast provided 12 Luke 16 c. Thus how big are most men with projects and designs which there is little hope should ever take effect while they live especially aspiring Monarchs and busie Politicians who draw the scheme and frame their design
of an universal Empire through a long series of Events or meditate changes and alterations of Government of the Laws and Religion of a Nation by insensible steps and methods which though it were never so hopeful a project they can't hope to live to see effected and therefore exceed their own bounds and trouble the World at present with what no body now living may ever be concerned in they undertake to govern the World when they are dead and gone whereas every Age brings forth new Projects and Counsels as it does a new generation of Men and new scenes of Affairs and a new set of Politicians Would but men confine their cares and projects within the bounds of their own lives and mind only what concerns themselves and their own times and they would live more at ease and the World enjoy more peace and quiet than now it is ever likely to do And yet one would think this very reasonable not to concern our selves about the World any longer than we are like to live in it to do no injury to Posterity as near as we can and to do what good we can for them without disturbing the present Peace and good Government of the World but to leave the care of the next Age to those who shall succeed and to that good Providence which governs and takes care of all Ages and Generations of Men. 2. Since we know the common Period of humane Life we should frequently count our days and observe how our lives wast and draw near to Eternity Our time slides away insensibly and fow men take notice how it goes they find their strength and vigour continues without any decay and they reckon upon living threescore and ten or fourscore years but seldom consider that it may be thirty or forty years are already gone that is the best half of their lives they put a cheat upon themselves by computing the whole duration of their lives without considering how much of this is already past and how little of it is to come which if men would seriously think of they would not be so apt to flatter themselves with a long life for no man accounts twenty or thirty years a long life and that is the most they have to live now though they should attain to the longest period of humane life much less could they flatter themselves with a long life when they could not probably reckon above fifteen or ten years to come And would men observe how their life shortens every day this if any thing would make them grow chary of their time and begin to think of living that is of minding the true ends and purposes of life of doing the work for which they came into the World and which they must do before they die or they are miserable for ever 3. When men draw near the end of their reckoning nay it may be are past the common reckoning of Mankind it more especially concerns them to apply themselves to a more serious and solemn preparation for Death for how vigorous soever their age is Death cannot be far off it will be unpardonable in them to be deceived with the hopes of living much longer who have already attained to the common period of humane Life and are in the borders and confines nay in the very quarters of Death and have already if I may so speak borrowed some years from the other World. Now when I speak of such mens preparing for Death I do not mean that they should then begin to think of dying that is a great deal of the latest to begin such a work though if they have not done it before it is without doubt high time to begin it then in the last minute of their lives and to do what they can in that little time that remains to obtain their Pardon of God for spending a long life in Sin and Vanity and in a Forgetfulness of their Maker and Redeemer But that which I now intend concerns those who have thought of dying long before and govern'd their lives under the conduct and influence of such thoughts and therefore are not wholly unprepared for Death but are ready to welcome it whenever it comes but there is a decent way of meeting Death which becomes such men which I call a more solemn Preparation for it that is when their condition and circumstances of life will permit it to take a timely leave of the World and to withdraw from the noise and business of it when they are placed just in the confines of both Worlds to direct their face wholly to that World whither they are a going to spend the little remains of their lives in conversing with themselves with God and with the other World. 1. In conversing with themselves which God knows very few men do while they are engaged in the business of this World the cares of Life or the pleasures of it our Families or our Friends or Strangers themselves take us from ourselves and therefore it is fit before men go out of this World that they should recover the possession of themselves and grow a little more acquainted and intimate with themselves retire from the World to take a more thorough review of their lives and actions what they have still to do to make their peace with God and their own Consciences whether there be any sin which they have not thoroughly repented of and heartily begged God's pardon for any injury they have done their Neighbour for which they have not made sufficient restitution and reparation whether they have any quarrel with any man which is not composed and reconciled whether there is any part of their Duty which they have formerly too much neglected as Charity to the Poor the wise Education and Instruction of their Children and Families and to apply themselves to a more diligent discharge of it what distempers there are in their minds which still need to be rectified what Graces are weakest what Passions are most disorderly and unmortified and to apply proper remedies to them This is an excellent preparation for Death because it will give us great hope and assurance in dying it gives us peace and satisfaction in our own minds by a thorough knowledge of our own state and by rectifying whatever was amiss it delivers our Consciences from guilty fears and so disarms Death of its sting and terrors for the sting of Death is Sin and when this sting is pulled out we have nothing else to contend with but some little natural aversions to dying which are more easily conquered 2. Thus in this preparatory Retirement from the World we should spend great portions of our time in the Worship of God in our publick or private Devotions for commonly men of business are very much in Arrears with God upon this account in their active Age they had little time to spare or little mind to spare it for the uses of Religion and therefore we may well retire some time before we die to
make up that defect and when we have done with the World to give up ourselves wholly to the service of God We should now be very importunate in our Prayers to God that for the Merits and Intercession of Christ he would freely pardon all the Sins and Frailties and Errors of our past life and give us such a comfortable hope and sence of his love to us as may support us in the hour of Death and sweeten the terrors and agonies of it We should meditate on the great love of God in sending Christ into the World to save Sinners and contemplate the height and depth and length and breadth of that love of God which passeth all humane Understanding We should represent to ourselves the wonderful condescension of the Son of God in becoming Man his amazing goodness in dying for Sinners the Just for the Unjust to reconcile us to God And when we have warmed our Souls with such thoughts as these we should break forth into raptures and extasies of Devotion in the praise of our Maker and Redeemer Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto him that sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever 5 Revel 12 13. And besides other reasons which makes this a very proper Preparation for Death this accustoms us to the work and employment of the next World for Heaven is a life of Devotion and Praise there we shall see God and admire and adore him and sing eternal Halelujahs to him and therefore nothing can so dispose and prepare us for Heaven as to have our hearts ready tuned to the praises of God ravished with his love transported with his glory and perfections and swallowed up in the most profound and humble adorations of him 3. Thus when we are going into another World it becomes us most to have our thoughts there to consider what a blessed place that is where we shall be delivered from all the fears and sorrows and temptations of this World where we shall see God and the Blessed Jesus and converse with Angels and glorified Spirits and live an endless life without fear of dying where there is nothing but perfect love and peace no cross interests and factions to contend with no storms to ruffle or discompose our joy and rest to Eternity where there is no pain no sickness no labour no care to refresh the weariness or to repair the decays of a mortal Body not so much as the image of Death to interrupt our constant enjoyments where there is a perpetual day and an eternal calm where our Souls shall attain their utmost perfection of Knowledge and Vertue where we shall serve God not with dull and sleepy and unaffecting Devotion but with piercing thoughts with life and vigour with ravishment and transport in a word where there are such things as neither eye hath seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive These are proper thoughts for a man who is to compose himself for Death not to think of the pale and ghastly looks of Death when he shall be wrapt up in his Winding-sheet not to think of the dark and melancholly retirements of the Grave where his Body must rot and putrifie till it be raised up again immortal and glorious but to lift up his eyes to Heaven to view that lightsom and happy Country with Moses to ascend up into the Mount and take a prospect of the heavenly Canaan whither he is going This will conquer even the natural aversions to Death and make us with St. Paul desirous to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all make it as easie to us to leave this World for Heaven as it is to remove into a more pleasant and wholesome Air or into a more convenient and beautiful House so easie so pleasant will it be to die with such thoughts as these about us This indeed ought to be the constant Exercise of the Christian Life it is fit for all times and for all persons and without some degree of it it is impossible to conquer the Temptations of the World or to live in the practice of divine and heavenly Vertues But this ought to be the constant business or entertainment rather of those happy men who have lived long enough in the World to take a fair leave of it who have run through all the Scenes and Stages of Humane Life and have now Death and another World in view and prospect And it is this makes a Retirement from the World so necessary or very useful not meerly to ease our bodily labours and to get a little rest from business to dissolve in sloth and idleness or to wander about to seek a Companion or to hear News or to talk Politicks or to find out some way to spend time which now lies upon their hands and is more uneasy and troublesom to them than business was This is a more dangerous state and does more indispose them for a happy Death than all the cares and troubles of an active Life but we must retire from this World to have more leisure and greater opportunities to prepare for the next to adorn and cultivate our Minds and dress our Souls like a Bride who is adorned to meet her Bridegroom When men converse much in this World and are distracted with the cares and business of it when they live in a crowd of Customers or Clients and are hurried from their Shops to the Exchange or Custom-house or from their Chambers to the Bar and when they have discharged one obligation are pressed hard by another that at night they have hardly Spirits left to say their Prayers nor any time for them in the morning and the Lord's Day itself is thought more proper for Rest and Refreshment than Devotion I say what dull cold apprehensions must such men have of another World And after all the care we can take how will this World insinuate itself into our affections when it imploys our time and thoughts when our whole business is buying and selling and driving good Bargains and making Conveyances and Settlements of Estates How will this disorder our Passions occasion Feuds and Quarrels give us a tincture of Pride Ambition Covetuousness that there is work enough after a busie life even for very good men to wash out these stains and pollutions and to get the tast and relish of this World out of their mouths and to revive and quicken the sence of GOD and of another World. This is a sufficient reason for such men as I observed before to think when it is time to leave off and if not wholly to withdraw from the World yet to contract their business and to have the command of it that they may have more leisure to take care of their Souls before they have so near a call and
worth the obedience and service of a few years how difficult soever that were 4hly If our lives are so very short at their utmost extent the sinful pleasures of this World can be no great temptation when compared with an Eternity of Happiness or Misery Those sensual pleasures which men are so fond of and for the sake of which they break the Laws of God and provoke his Justice forfeit immortal Life and expose themselves to all the Miseries and Sufferings of an eternal Death can last no longer than we live in this World and how little a while is that When we put off these Bodies all bodily pleasures perish with them nay indeed as our bodies die and decay by degrees before they tumble into the Grave so do our pleasures sensibly decay too As short as our lives are men may out-live some of their most beloved Vices and therefore how luscious soever they may be such short and dying Pleasures ought not to come in competition with eternal Happiness or Mifery what ever things are in their own nature the value of them increases or diminishes according to the length or shortness of their enjoyment that which will last our lives and make them easy and comfortable is to be prefered by wise men before the most ravishing enjoyments of a day and a happiness which will out-last our lives and reach to eternity is to be preferred before the perishing enjoyments of a short life unless men can think it better to be happy for threescore years than for ever nay unless men think the enjoyments of threescore years a sufficient recompence for eternal want and misery 5hly The shortness of our lives are a sufficient answer to all these arguments against Providence taken from the Prosperity of bad Men and the Miseries and Afflictions of the good for both of them are so short that they are nothing in the account of Eternity Were this life to be considered by it self without any relation to a future State the difficulty would be greater but not vâ—ry great because a short happiness or a short misery chequered and intermixt as all the happiness and miseries of this life are is not very considerable nor were it worth the while either to make objections against Providence or to answer them if Death put an end to us Bad men who make these Objections against Providence are very well contented to take the World as they find it so they may have it without a Providence which is a sign that it is not their dislike of this World though many times they suffer as much in it as good men do which makes them quarrel at Providence but the dread and fear of another World and this proves that they think this World a very tolerable place whether there be a Providence or not And if so short a life as this is be but tolerable it is a sufficient justification of Providence that this life is well enough for its continuance a very mixt and imperfect state indeed but very short too such a state as bad men themselves would like very well without another World after it and such a state as good men like very well with another Life to follow It is not a spight at humane life which makes them reject a Providence as any one would guess who hears them object their own Prosperity and the Calamities of good men as arguments against Providence both which they like very well and whatever there may be in these Objections supposing there were no other life after this yet when they all vanish at the very naming of another life where good Men shall be rewarded and the Wicked punished it is ridiculous to prove that there is no other life after this because rewards and punishments are not dispensed with that exact Justice in this life as we might suppose God would observe if there were no other life To prove that there is no other life after this because good and bad men do not receive their just rewards in this life is an Argument which becomes the wit and understanding of an Atheist for they must first take it for granted that there is no Providence before this argument can prove any thing for if there be a Providence then the prosperity of bad Men and the sufferings of the good is a much better argument that there is another life after this where rewards and punishments shall be more equally distributed Thus when they dispute against Providence from the Prosperity of bad men and the Calamities of the good before this can prove any thing they must take it for granted that there is no other life after this where good Men shall be rewarded and the wicked punished for if there be it is easie enough to justifie the Providence of God as to the present prosperity of bad men and the sufferings of the good So that they must of necessity dispute in a circle as the Papists do between the Church and the Scriptures when they either prove that there is no Providence or no Life after this from the unequal rewards and punishments of bad and good Men in this World For in effect they prove that there is no Providence because there is no life after this or that there is no life after this because there is no Providence for the prosperity of bad Men and the sufferings of the good proves neâ—â—her of them unless you take the other for granted and if you will prove them both by this Medium you must take them both for granted by turns and that is the easier and safer way to take them for granted without exposing themselves to the scorn of wise men by such kind of proofs But yet though this were no Objection against the being of another World and a Providence yet had the prosperity of bad Men and the calamities of the good continued some hundred years it had been a greater difficulty and a greater temptation than now it is The prosperity of the Wicked is a much less objection when it is so easily answered as the Psalmist does Yet a little while and the wicked shall not be yea thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be 37 Psal. 10. When the very same persons who have been the Spectators and Witnesses of his prosperous Villanies live to see a quick and sudden end of him I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green bay-tree yet he passed away and lo he was not yea I sought him but he could not be found 35 36 And this is enough also to support the spirits of good men For this cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 16 17. SECT V. The time and manner and circumstances of every particular Man's Death is not determined
by an absolute and unconditional Decree II. THough God who knows all things does know also the time and manner and circumstances of every particular Man's Death yet it does not appear that he has by an absolute and unconditional Decree fixed and determined the particular time of every Man's Death This is that famous Question which Beverovicius a learned Physitian was so much concerned to have resolved and consulted so many learned men about as supposing it would be a great injury to his Profession did men believe that the time of their Death was so absolutely determined by God that they could neither die sooner nor live longer then that fatal Period whether they took the Advice and Prescriptions of the Physicians or not But this was a vain fear for there are some Speculations which men never live by how vehemently soever they contend for them A Sceptick who pretends that there is nothing certain and will dispute with you as long as you please about it yet will not venture his own arguments so far as to leap into Fire or Water nor to stand before the mouth of a loaded Canon when you give fire to it Thus men who talk most about fatal Necessity and absolute Decrees yet they will eat and drink to preserve themselves in health and take Physick when they are sick and as heartily repent of their sins and vow amendment and reformation when they think themselves a dying as if they did not believe one word of such absolute Decrees and fatal Necessity as they talk of at other times I do not intend to engage in this Dispute of Necessity and Fate of Prescience and absolute Decrees which will be Disputes as long as the World lasts unless men grow wiser than to trouble themselves with such Questions as are above their reach and which they can never have a clear notion and perception of but all that I intend is to shew you according to the Scripture account of it that the Period of our Lives is not so peremptorily determined by God but that we may lengthen or shorten them live longer or die sooner according as we behave ourselves in this World. Now this is very plain from all those places of Scripture where God promises long life to good Men and threatens to shorten the lives of the Wicked 91 Psal. 16. With long life will I satisfie him and shew him my salvation Solomon tells us of Wisdom Length of days is in her right hand and in her left riches and honours 3 Prov. 16. The fear of the Lord prolongeth days but the years of the wicked shall be shortned 10 Prov. 27. Thus God has promised long life to those who honour their Parents in the fifth Commandment and the same promise is made in more general terms to those who observe the Statutes and Commandments of God 4 Deut. 40. Upon the same condition God promised long life to King Solomon 1 Kings 3. 14. And if thou wilt walk in my ways to keep my statutes and commandments as thy father David did walk then will I lengthen thy days The same is supposed in David's Prayer to God not to take him away in the midst of his days 102 Psal. 24. And in 55 Psal. 23. he tells us That bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days Now one would reasonably conclude from hence that God has not absolutely and unconditionally determined the fatal period of every Man's life because he has conditionally promised to prolong Mens lives or threatned to shorten them for what place can there be for conditional Promises where an absolute Decree is past How can any man be said not to live out half his days if he lives as long as God has decreed he shall live for if the period of every particular Man's life be determined by God none are his days but what God has decreed for him As for matter of fact it is plain and evident both that men shorten their own lives and that God shortens them for them and that in such a manner as will not admit of an absolute and unconditional Decree Thus some men destroy a healthful and vigorous constitution of body by intemperance and lust and do as manifestly kill themselves as those who hang or poison or drown themselves and both these sorts of men I suppose may be said to shorten their own lives and so do those who rob or murder or commit any oother villany which forfeits their lives to publick Justice or quarrel and fall in a Duel and the like and yet you will no more say that God decreed and determined the death of these men then he did their sin Thus God himself very often shortens the lives of men by Plague and Famine and Sword and such other Judgments as he executes upon a wicked World and this must be confest to be the effect of God's counsel and decrees as a Judge decrees and pronounces the death of a Malefactor but this is not an absolute and unconditional decree but is occasioned by their sins and provocations as all Judgments are they might have lived longer and escaped these Judgments had they been vertuous and obedient to God for if they should have lived no longer whether they had sinned or not their death by what judgments soever they are cut off is not so properly the execution of Justice as of a peremtory Decree their lives are not shortned but their fatal period is come Indeed unless we make the Providence of God not the government of a wise and free Agent who acts pro re nata and rewards and punishes as men deserve as the Scripture represents it but an unavoidable execution of a long series of fatal and necessary Events from the beginning to the end of the World as the Stoicks thought we must acknowledge that in the government of free Agents God has reserved to himself a free liberty of lengthning or shortning mens lives as will best serve the ends of Providence for if we will allow Man to be a free Agent and that he is not under a necessity of sinning and deserving to be cut off at such a time or in such a manner the application of rewards and punishments to him must be free also or else they may be ill applied he may be punished when he deserves to be rewarded the fatal period of life may fall out at such a time when he most of all deserves long life and when the lengthning his life would be a publick Blessing to the World. Fatal and necessary Events can never be fitted to the government of free Agents no more than you can make a Clock which shall strike exactly for time and number when such a man speaks let him speak when or name what number he pleases And yet there is nothing of greater moment in the government of the World than a free power and liberty of lengthning or shortning mens lives for nothing more over-aws Mankind and keeps them more in
ourselves It is possible we may live to old age because some do but it is more likely we shall not because there are more that die young The truth is the time of dying is so uncertain the ways of dying so infinite so unseen so casual and fortuitous to us that instead of promising ourselves long life no wise man will promise himself a week nor venture any thing of great moment and consequence upon it The hope of long life is nothing else but self-flattery the fondness men have for life and that partiality they have for themselves perswades them that they shall live as long as any man can live and shall escape those Diseases and fatal Accidents with which our Bills of Mortality are filled every week but then you should consider that other men are as dear to themselves as you are and flatter themselves as much with long life as you do but their hopes very often deceive them and so may yours But you 'll say To what purpose is all this why so much pains to put us out of conceit with the hopes of living long for what hurt is it if we do flatter ourselves a little more in this matter than we have reason for If it should prove only a deceitful Dream yet it makes life chearful and comfortable and gives us a true relish of it and why should we disturb ourselves and make life uneasy by the perpetual thoughts of dying Now I confess were there no hurt and danger in it this were as ill-natured and spightful a thing as could be done and the least recompence I could make would be to ask your pardon for it and leave you to enjoy the comforts of life securely for the future to live on as long as you can and let Death come when it will without being lookt for but I apprehend a great deal of danger in such deceitful and flattering hopes and that is the reason why I disswade you from it For 1. The hope of long life is apt to make us fond of this World which is as great a mischief to us as to expose us to all the temptations and flatteries of it That we must die and leave this World is a good reason indeed why we ought not to be fond of it why we should live like Pilgrims and Strangers here as I observed before But few men who hope to live threescore or fourscore years think much of this though it be comparatively short in respect of Eternity yet it is a great while to live and a great while to enjoy this World in and that is thought a very valuable happiness which can be enjoyed so long and then men let loose their desires and affections endeavour to get as much of this World as they can and to enjoy as much of it as they can and not only to tast but to take full and plentiful draughts of the intoxicating Pleasures of it And how dangerous this is I need not tell any man who considers that all the wickedness of Mankind is owing to too great a fondness and passion for this World. And therefore if we would live like Pilgrims and set loose from all the enjoyments of this World we must remember that our stay is uncertain here that we have no lease of our lives but may be turned out of our earthly Tenements at pleasure For what man would be fond of laying up great treasures on Earth who remembers That this night his soul may be taken from him and then whose shall all these things be What man would place his happiness in such enjoyments which for ought he knows he may be taken from to morrow These are indeed melancholy and mortifying considerations and that is the true use of them for it is necessary we should be mortified to this World to cure the love of it and conquer its temptations For if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eye and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the world 2. As the hopes of long life give great advantage to the temptations of this World so they weaken the hopes and fears of the other World they strengthen our temptations and weaken us which must needs be of very fatal consequence to us in our spiritual Warfare All that we have to oppose against the flattering Temptations of this World are the Hopes and Fears of the World to come but the hope of long life sets the next World at too great a distance to conquer this what is present works more powerfully upon our minds than what is abfent and the farther any thing is off the less powerful it is To make you sensible of this I shall only desire you to remember what thoughts you have had of another World when the present fears of dying have given you a nearer view of it Good Lord what Agonies have I seen dying Sinners in how penitent how devout how resolved upon a new course of life which too often vanish like a Dream when the fear of Death is over What is the reason of this difference Heaven and Hell is the very same when we are in health as when we are sick and I will suppose that you do as firmly believe a Heaven and a Hell in health as in sickness the onely thing then that makes the thoughts of the other World so strong and powerful and affecting when we are sick is that we see the other World near us that we are just a stepping into it and this makes it our present concernment but in health we see the other World a great way off and therefore do not think it of such near and present concernment and what we do not think ourselves at present concerned in or not much concerned in how great and valuable soever it be in itself will either not affect us at all or very little Thus while bad men place the other World at a great distance from them and out of sight they have no restraint at all upon their lusts and passions and good men themselves at the greater distance they see the other World are so much the less affected by it which damps their zeal and their devotion and makes them less active and vigorous in doing good And there is so much the more danger in this because men look upon the other World as farthest off and so are least concerned about it when the thoughts of the other World are most useful and most necessary to them in the heat and vigour of youth men are most exposed to the temptations of flesh and sense and have most need to think of another World and a future Judgment but those who promise themselves a long life see Death and another World so far off while they are young that it moves them as little as if there were no other World. And though one would think that as our
lives wast and the other World grows near so we should recover a more lively sence of it yet we find it quite otherwise When men have been used to think the next World a great way off they will never think it near till it comes and when they have been used to think of the other World without any passion or concernment for it it is almost an impossible thing to give any quickness and passion to such thoughts for when any thoughts and the passion that properly belongs to such thoughts have been a great while separated it is a hard thing to unite them again to begin to think of that with passion and concern which we have been used for thirty or forty years to think of without any concernment 3. Another dangerous effect of flattering ourselves with long life is that it encourages men to sin with the vain hopes and resolutions of repenting before they die When men are convinced that if they live and die in sin they must be miserable for ever as I believe most profest Christians are as I am sure all must be who believe the Gospel of our Saviour there is no other possible way to ward off this blow and to sin securely under such Convictions but by resolving to repent and to make their peace with God before they die They flatter themselves they have a great while yet to live Judgment is a great way off and therefore they may indulge themselves a while and enjoy the sweets of sin and gratifie their youthful inclinations and learn the Vanity of the World by experience as their Forefathers have done before them and then they will grow as wise and grave and declaim against the Follies and Vanities of Youth and be as penitent and as devout and religious as any of them all Whoever considers the uncertainty of Humane Life if he should hear men talk at this rate would either conclude that they were mad or merrily disposed but could never guess that they were in their wits and in good earnest too but if he will allow men to be in their wits who can promise themselves long life when they see every day how uncertain life is and if we will not allow such men to be in their wits above two thirds of the World are mad this gives a plain account how men may resolve to sin while they are young and to repent when they are old for it is only the flattering hopes of long life that can encourage men in a course of sin Men indeed who do not promise themselves long life may commit a particular sin and resolve to repent of it as soon as they have done which are a more modest sort of Sinners of which more presently but I speak now of those and too many such there are who resolve to take their fill of this World while youth and strength and health last and to grow sober and religious when they grow old the consequent of which is that they resolve to be damned unless they live till they are old or till they grow weary of their sins and learn more wisdom by age and experience Now I shall not insist at present upon the hazard such men run of not living till the time comes which they have allotted for their repentance which belongs to another Argument but onely what a dangerous thing it is to be tempted to a custom and habit of sinning by the hope of long life and of time enough to repent in for there is not a greater Cheat in the World that men put upon themselves than to indulge themselves in all manner of Wickednesses to contract strong and powerful habits of Vice with a resolution to repent of their sins and to forsake them before they die The experience of the World sufficiently proves how vain this is for though some such men may live while they are old how seldom is it seen that they repent of their youthful Debaucheries when they grow old They still retain their love and affection for those sins which they can commit no longer and repent of nothing but that they are grown old and cannot be so wicked as they were when they were young And is there any reason in the World to expect it should be otherwise Do we not know what the power of habit and custom is how the love of sin increases with the repeated commission of it and is the spending our youthful strength and vigour in sin likely to dispose and prepare us to be sincere Penitents when we grow old Do we not see that a custom of sinning in some men destroys the modesty of humane Nature in others all sence of God and of Religion or of the natural differences of good and evil Some men sin on till they despise repentance others till they think repentance is too late so that though men were sure that they should live long enough to grow wiser and to repent and reform the sins and extravagances of youth yet no man who enters upon a wicked course of life has any reason to expect that he shall ever repent and therefore it is extreamly dangerous to flatter ourselves into a habit and custom of sinning with the hopes and expectations that we shall live to repent of our sins and if this be dangerous it must be very dangerous to flatter ourselves with the hopes of long life which is the great temptation to men to sin on and to delay their repentance till old age 2. Since the time of our Death is so unknown and uncertain to us we ought always to live in expectation of it to be so far from promising ourselves long life that we should not promise ourselves a day And the reason for it is plain and necessary because we are not sure of a day This you 'll say is hard indeed to live always in expectation of dying which is no better then dying every day or enduring the repeated fears and terrors of Death every day which is the most uncomfortable part of dying at this rate we never live but instead of dying once as God has appointed we are always a dying nay this indeed is a fine saying but signifies nothing for no man does it nor can do it though we may die every day we see that men live on forty fifty threescore years and therefore though we know that our lives are uncertain yet no man can think every day that he shall die to day This is very true and therefore to live always in expectation of dying does not signifie a belief that we shall die to day but only that we may which answers the objection against the uncomfortableness of it for such an expectation as this has nothing of dread and terror in it but only prudence and caution Men may live very comfortably and enjoy all the innocent pleasures of life with these thoughts about them to expect Death every day is like expecting Thieves every night which does not disturb our rest but
so long in it that it weakens the hopes and fears of the next World by removing it at too great a distance from us that it encourages men to live in sin because they have time enough before them to indulge their Lusts and to repent of their Sins and make their Peace with God before they die and if the uncertain hopes of this undoes so many men what would the certain knowledge of it do Those who are too wise and considerate to be imposed on by such uncertain hopes might be conquered by the certain knowledge of a long life This would take off all restraints from men and give free scope to their vicious inclinations when they know that how wicked soever they were they should not die before their time was come and could never be surpiz'd by Death since they certainly knew when it will come which destroys one great motive to Obedience that Sin shall shorten Mens lives and that Vertue and Piety shall prolong them That the wicked shall not live out half their days that the fear of the Lord prolongeth days but the years of the wicked shall be shortned 10 Prov. 27. Such promises and threatnings as these must be struck out of the Bible should God let all men know the time of their death Nay this would frustrate the methods and designs of Providence for the reclaiming Sinners some times publick Calamities Plague and Famine and Sword alarum a wicked World and summon Men to repentance sometimes a dangerous fit of Sickness awakens Men into a sence of their sins and works in them a true and lasting repentance but all this would be ineffectual did Men know the time of their death and that such publick Judgments or threatning Sickness should not kill them The uncertainty of our Lives is a great motive to constant Watchfulness to an early and persevering Piety but to know when we shall die could serve no good end but would encrease the wickedness of Mankind which is too great already which is a sufficient Vindication of the Wisdom of God in leaving the time of Death unknown and uncertain to us SECT VII That we must Die but once or that Death translates us to an unchangable State with the Improvement of it THe last thing to be consider'd is That we must die but once It is appointed for men once to die There are some exceptions from this Rule as there are from dying that as Enoch and Elias did not die so some have been raised again from the Dead to live in this World and such men died twice But this is a certain Rule in general That as all men must die once so they must die but once which needs no other proof but the daily experience and observation of Mankind But that which I intend by it is this That once dying determines our state and condition for ever when we put off these mortal Bodies we must not return into them again to act over a new part in this World and to correct the errours and miscarriages of our former lives Death translates us to an immutable and unchangeable state that in this sence what the wise man tells us is true If the tree fall towards the south or toward the north in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be 11 Eccles. 3. This is a consideration of very great moment and deserves to be more particularly explain'd which I shall do in these following Propositions 1. That this life is the only state of trial and probation for Eternity And therefore 2. Death when ever it comes as it puts a final period to this life that we die once for all and must never live again as we do now in this World so it puts a final end to our work too that our day of grace and time of working for another World ends with this life And 3dly As a necessary consequence of both these once dying puts us into an immutable and unchangeable state 1. That this life only is our state of trial and probation for Eternity whatever is to be done by us to obtain the favour of God and a blessed Immortality must be done in this life I observed before that this life is wholly in order to the next that the great the only necessary business we have to do in this World is to fit and prepare ourselves to live for ever in GOD's presence To finish the work GOD has given us to do that we may receive the reward of good and faithful Servants to enter into our Master's rest I now add that the only time we have to do this in is while we live in this World This is evident from what S. Paul tells us That we must all appear before the judgement-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5. 10. Now if we must be judged and receive our final sentence according to what we have done in the body then our only time of trial and working is while we live in these Bodies for the future Judgment relates only to what is done in the Body The Gospel of Christ is the Rule whereby we must be judged even that Gospel which St. Paul preached 2 Rom. 16. and all the Laws and Precepts of the Gospel concern the government of our Conversation in this World and therefore if we be judged by the Gospel we must be judged only for what we have done in this World. This life throughout the Scripture is represented as the time of working as a Race a Warfare a labouring in the Vineyard the other World as a place of Recompence of Rewards or punishments and if there be such a relation between this World and the next as between fighting and conquering and receiving the Crown as between running a race and obtaining a prize as between the work and the reward then we must fight and conquer run our race and finish our work in this World if we expect the Rewards of the next Many of those Graces and Vertues which our Saviour has promised to reward with eternal Life can be exercised only in this World Faith and Hope are peculiar only to this Life while the other World is absent and unseen And these are the great Principles and Graces of the Christian Life to believe what we do not see and to live and act upon the hopes of future Rewards the government of our bodily appetites and passions by the rules of Temperance Sobriety and Chastity necessarily supposes that we have Bodies and bodily Appetites and Passions to govern and therefore these Vertues can be exercised only while we live in these Bodies which solicite and tempt us to sensual Excesses To live above this World to despise the tempting Glories of it is a Vertue only while we live in it and are tempted by it to have our Conversation in Heaven which is the most divine temper of Mind is
Heaven Nothing but the hopes and fears of the next World can enforce these Duties on us and this justifies the wisdom and goodness of God in making the present exercise of these Vertues necessary to our future Rewards I shall only add that whatever complaints bad Men may make that their future Happiness or Misery depends upon the government and conduct of their Lives in this World I am sure all Mankind would have had great reason to complain if it had been otherwise For how miserable must it have made us to have certainly known that we must be eternally happy or eternally miserable in the next World and not to have as certainly known how to escape the Miseries and obtain the Hapâ—iness of it And how could that be possibly known if the trial of it had been reserved for an unknown state What a terrible thing had it been to die could no Man have been sure what would have become of him in the next World as no Man could have been upon this supposal for how can any Man know what his reward shall be when he is so far from having done his work that he knows not what he is to do till he comes into the next World. But now since we shall be rewarded according to what we have done in this Body every Man certainly knows what will make him happy or miserable in the next World and it is his own fault if he do not live so as to secure immortal Life and what a blessed state is this to have so joyful a prospect beyond the Grave and to put off these Bodies with the certain hopes of a glorious Resurrection This I think is sufficient to vindicate the wisdom and goodness of God in making this present Life a state of trial and probation for the happiness of the next But to proceed 2. If this Life only be our state of trial and probation for Eternity then Death as it puts a final period to this Life so it puts a final end to our work too our day of Grace and time of Working for another World ends with this Life We shall easily apprehend the necessity of this if we remember that Death which is the punishment of Sin is not meerly the death of the Body but that state of Misery to which Death translates Sinners and therefore if we die while we are in a state of Sin under the Curse and under the power of Death there is no Redemption for us because the Justice of God has already seiz'd us the Sentence is already executed and that is too late to obtain a Pardon for in this case Death answers to our casting into Prison from whence we shall never come forth till we have paid the uttermost Farthing as our Saviour represents it 5 Matt. 25 26 for indeed Sin is the death of the Soul and those who are under the power of Sin are in a state of Death and if they die before they have a principle of a new Life in them they fall under the power of Death that is into that state of Misery and Punishment which is appointed for such dead Souls and therefore our redemption from Death by Christ is begun in our dying to Sin and walking in newness of Life which is our conformity to the Death and the Resurrection of Christ 6 Rom. 4. This is to be dead to sin and to be alive to GOD as Christ is and if we die with Christ we shall rise with him also into immortal Life which is begun in this World and will be perfected in the next which is the sum of St. Paul's argument v. 6 7 8 9 10 11. thus he tells us 8 Rom. 10 11. If Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness That is our Bodies are mortal and must die by an irreversible Sentence which God pronounc'd against Adam when he had sinned but the Soul and Spirit has a new principle of Life a principle of Righteousness and Holiness by which it lives to God and therefore cannot fall into a state of Death when the Body dies But if the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you That is when the divine Spirit has quicken'd our Souls and raised them into a new Life though our Bodies must die yet the same divine Spirit will raise them up also into immortal Life This is the plain account of the matter If Death arrests us while we are in a state of Sin and Death we must die for ever but if our Souls are alive to God by a principle of Grace and Holiness before our Bodies die they must live for ever A dead Soul must die with its Body that is sink into a state of Misery which is the death and the loss of the Soul a living Soul survives the Body in a state of Bliss and Happiness and shall receive its Body again glorious and immortal at the Resurrection of the Just but this change of state must be made while we live in these Bodies a dead Soul cannot revive in the other World nor a living Soul die there and therefore this Life is the day of God's Grace and Patience the next World is the place of Judgment And the reason St. Peter gives why God is not hasty in executing judgment but is long suffering to us ward is because he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3. 5. Hence the Apostle to the Hebrews exhorts them Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your fathers tempted me proved me and saw my works forty years Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said They do alway err in their hearts and they have not known my ways So I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest There is some dispute what is meant by to day whether it be the day of this Life or such a fixt and determin'd day and season of Grace as may end long before this Life The example of the Israelites of whom God swear in his wrath that they should die in the Wilderness and never enter into his Rest that is into the Land of Canaan seems to incline it to the latter sence for this sentence That they should not enter into his Rest was pronounc'd against them long before they died for which reason they wandered forty Years in the Wilderness till all that Generation of Men were dead and if we are concern'd in this example then we also may provoke God to such a degree that he may pronounce the final sentence on us That we shall never enter into Heaven long before we leave this World Our day of Grace may
have a shorter period than our Lives and we may wander about in this World as the Israelites did in the Wilderness under an irreversible doom and sentence And the scope of the Apostle's argument seems to require this sence which is to engage them to a speedy repentance To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts But why to day is it because our Lives are uncertain and we may die before to morrow No but lest we provoke GOD to swear in his wrath that we shall not enter into his rest All Men know that if they die in a state of Sin they must be miserable for ever and this is a reason to repent before they die But the Apostle seems to argue farther that by their delays and repeated provocations they may tempt God to shorten their day of Grace and pronounce an irrevocable Sentence on them which leaves no place for Repentance which else where he inforces from the example of Esau who sold his Birth-right 12 Heb. 15 16 17. v. Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be desiled Lest there be any fornicator or prophane person as Esau who for one morsel of meat sold his birth-right For ye know how that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected for he found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears The stating of this matter may be thought a Digression from my present Design but indeed it is not for if by to day be meant the whole time of this Life that proves that Death puts a final period to our day of Grace and if any shorter period than this Life be meant by it it proves it much stronger for if our sentence be passed before we die it will not be revoked after death But the stating this Question is a matter of so great consequence to us that if it were a Digression it were very pardonable for many devout Minds when they are disturbed and clouded with melancholy are afflied with such thoughts as these That their day of Grace is past that God has sworn in his wrath that they shall not enter into his Rest and therefore their repentance and tears will be as fruitless as Esau's were which could not obtain the Blessing Now for the resolving this Question I shall say these three things 1. That the Day of Grace according to the terms of the Gospel is commensurate with our Lives 2. That notwithstanding this Men may shorten their own Day of Grace and God may in wrath and justice confirm the Sentence 3. That the reasons for lengthning the Day of Grace together with our Lives do not extend to the other World and therefore Death must put a final period to it 1. That the Day of Grace according to the Terms of the Gospel is commensurate with our Lives and there needs no other proof of this but that the promise of Pardon and Forgiveness is made to all true Penitents without any limitation of time Whoever believes in Christ and repents of his sins he shall be saved this is the Doctrine of the Gospel And if this be true then it is certain that at what time soever a Sinner sincerely repenteth of his sins he shall be saved for otherwise some true and sincere Penitents if they repent too late after the day of Grace is expired shall be damned and then it is not true that all sincere Penitents shall be saved I know but one Objection against this from the example of Esau who having sold his Birth-right when afterwards he would have inherited the blessing was rejected for he found no place for repentance though he sought it carefully with tears It seems then that Esau repented too late and so may we his repentance would not be accepted And if we are concerned in this example as the Apostle intimates we are then we may repent of our sins when it is too late and lose the Blessing as Esau did But this Objection is founded on a mistake of Esau's case the Repentance here mentioned is not Esau's Repentance but Isaac's that is when Isaac had blessed Iacob Esau with all his tears and importunity could not make him recal it i. e. Isaac would not repent of the blessing he had given to Iacob I have blessed him yea and he shall be blessed 27 Gen. 33. Esau's case then was not that his Repentance came too late to be accepted but that he could not obtain the Blessing after he had sold his Birth-right to which the Blessing was annexed Now to apply this to the state of Christians that which answers to Esau's Birth-right is their right and title to future Glory being made the Sons of God by baptismal Regeneration and Faith in Christ to sell this Birth-right is to part with our hopes of Heaven for the pleasures or riches or honours of this World as Esau sold his Birth-right for one morsel of Meat that is as the Apostle speaks to fail of the grace of God either through Unbelief which he calls the root of bitterness a renouncing the Faith of Christ and returning to Iudaism or Pagan Idolatries or by an impure and wicked Life Lest there be any fornicater or prophane person as Esau who for one morsel of meat sold his birth-right i. e. who despises the hopes of Heaven for the sinful pleasures and transient enjoyments of this World Men who thus fail of the grace of God and finally do so as Esau finally sold his Birth-right when our heavenly Father comes to give his Blessing those great rewards he has promised in his Gospel how importunate soever they shall then be for a Blessing as Esau was who sought it carefully with tears they shall find no place for repentance God will not alter his purposes and decrees for their sakes Our Saviour has given us a plain Comment on this 7 Mat. 21 22 23. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven Many will say unto me at that day that is the Day of Judgment when the Blessing is to be given Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works Here is Esau's Importunity for the Blessing And then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity They were profane Esau's who had sold their Birth-right for a morsel of Meat and now they found no place for Repentance our Lord will not be perswaded by all their importunities to alter his Sentence But depart from me ye that work iniquity This example then of Esau does not concern our present case it does not prove that a wicked Man who hath spent the greatest part of his Life in sin and folly shall not be accepted and rewarded by
of the Israelites in the Wilderness of whom God swear that they should not enter into his rest as appears from the application he himself makes of it 3 Heb. 12 13. Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God But exhort one another daily while it is called To day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin This is a plain account of that great Question concerning the length of the Day of Grace Men may out-live the time of Repentance may so harden themselves in sin as to make their Repentance morally impossible but they cannot out-live the Mercies of God to true Penitents This is reason enough to discourage Men from delaying their Repentance and indulging themselves in a vicious course of Life Lest they should be hardned by the deceitfulness of sin and should be forsaken by God but it is no reason to discourage true Penitents from trusting in the Mercy of God how late soever their Repentance be for while we live in this World the door of Grace and Mercy is not shut against true Penitents 3. But yet the reasons of lengthning the Day of Grace and Mercy do not reach beyond this Life This sufficiently appears from what I have already said and for a further confirmation of it I shall add but this one comprehensive Reason viz. That the Grace of the Gospel is confined to the Church on Earth and therefore this Life is the only time to obtain the remission of our Sins and a title to future Glory We shall be finally absolved from all our Sins and rewarded with eternal Life at the Day of Judgment but we must sue out our Pardon and make our Calling and Election sure in this World. The Gospel of Christ which is the Gospel of Grace and contains the promises of Pardon and immortal Life is preached only to Men on Earth and concerns none else For this reason Christ became Man cloathed with flesh and blood as we are that he might be the Saviour of Mankind which he need not have done had not their Salvation been to be wrought in this World for could they have been saved in the next his Grace might have met them soon enough there and therefore at the birth of our Saviour the Angels sang Glory be to God in the highest on earth peace good will towards men 2 Luke 14. The Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross as all Iewish Sacrifices which were Types of the Sacrifice of the Cross were was offered for the expiation of the Sins of living Men or at least considered as living not of the dead He carried his blood into Heaven as the High-Priest did the blood of the Sacrifice into the Holy of Holies there to make expiation and to interceed for us but this Intercession though made in Heaven relates only to Men on Earth as his Sacrifice did The earthly Tabernacle was a Type of the Church on Earth and that only and the Worshippers in it was expiated by Sacrifices There are two Sacraments whereby the Grace of the Gospel is applied to us and which are the ordinary means of Salvation Baptism and the Lord's Supper and they are confined to the Church on Earth and if they have not their effect here they cannot have it in the next World These unite us to Christ as Members of his Body and then the holy Spirit which animates the Body of Christ takes possession of us renews and sanctifies us but if we prove dead and barren Branches in this spiritual Vine if the Censures of the Church do not cut us off from the Body of Christ Death will and then we can never be re-united to him nor saved by him in the next World. Faith in Christ and Repentance from dead Works are the great Gospel-terms of Pardon and Salvation and these are confined to this World there may be something like them in the next World such a Faith as makes the Devils tremble such a Repentance as is nothing else but despairing Agonies and a hopeless and tormenting Remorse but such a Faith as purifies the heart as conquers this present World as brings forth the fruits of Righteousness such a Repentance as reforms our Lives as undoes all our past Sins as redresses the Injuries we have done to our Neighbours and the Scandal we have given to the World such a Faith and such a Repentance which alone are the true Christian Graces of Faith and Repentance are proper only for this Life and can be exercised only in this Life while we have this World to conquer and the Flesh to subdue to the Spirit while we can restore our ill-gotten Riches and set a visible Example of Piety and Vertue From hence it is very evident that no Man who dies in a state of Sin and Impenitence can be saved by Christ and by the Grace of the Gospel in the next World for the whole ministration of Gospel-grace is confined to this Life and if they cannot be saved by Christ I know no other Name whereby they can be saved And thus Death puts an end to all the flattering hopes of Sinners 3. Now if this Life be our only state of trial and probation for Eternity if Death puts a final end to our Day of Grace and time of Working then Death must translate us to an immutable and unchangeable state By this I do not mean that as soon as we go out of these Bodies our Souls will immediately be as happy or miserable as ever they shall be the perfect rewards of good Men are reserved for the Day of Judgment as the final punishments of bad Men are when our Lord shall say to those on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world And to them on the left hand Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels 25 Mat. 34 41. But though the Happiness or Miseries of the next World may increase yet the state can never alter that is if we die in a state of Grace and Favour with God we shall always continue so if we die in a state of Sin under the wrath and displeasure of God there is no altering our state in the other World we must abide under his wrath for ever This is the necessary consequence of what I have already said which all aimed at this point that once dying puts us into an immutable and unchangeable state and therefore I shall wave any further proof of this and only desire you seriously to consider of it 1. Now first since Death puts an end to our Day of Grace and determines our final State for ever and this Death comes but once all Men must confess of what mighty consequence it is to die well that Death find us well disposed and well prepared for another World. Men use their utmost prudence and caution in doing that which can be
done but once for their whole lives especially if the happiness of their whole lives depends on it for no errour can be corrected in what is to be done but once and certainly we have much more reason to prepare to die once which translates us to an immutable state of Happiness or Misery This ought to be the work and business of our whole lives to prepare for Death which comes but once but that once is for Eternity What unpardonable folly is it for any Man to be surprized by Death to fall into the Grave without thinking of it To commit a mistake which may be retrieved again to be guilty of some neglect and inadvertency when the hurt we suffer by it may be repair'd by future diligence and caution is much more excusable because it is not so fatal and irreparable a folly In this case experience may teach wisdom and wisdom is a good purchase though we may pay dear for it but a wise Man will use great caution in making an experiment which if it fail will cost him his life because that can never be tried a second time and experience is of no use in such things as can be done but once And this is the case of dying we can die but once and if we miscarry that once we are undone for ever And what considering Man would make such dangerous experiments as Sinnres do every day when their Souls are the price of the experiment Who would try how long Death will delay its coming how long he may sin on safely without thinking of Death or Judgment whether Death will give him timely notice to repent or whether God will give him grace to repent if it does Who would venture the infinite hazards of a Death-bed-repentance whether after a long life of sin and wickedness a few distracted confused and almost despairing sighs and groans will carry him to Heaven If such bold Adventurers as these when they have discovered their mistake and folly could return back into this World and live over their lives again the hazard were not so great but this is an experiment not to be twice made If they sin on till they harden themselves in sin and are forsaken of the Grace of God if Death comes long before they expected and cut them off by surprize and without warning if their dying and despairing Agonies and Horrours should not prove a true godly Sorrow not that repentance to salvation never to be repented of they are lost to Eternity And what wise Man would expose his Soul to such a hazard as this Who would not take care to make his Calling and Election sure before Death comes and in a matter of such infinite concernment wherein one miscarriage is irreparable to prevent danger at a distance 2dly We hence learn how necessary it is for those who begin well to persevere unto the end It is the conclusion of our lives which determines our future state as God expresly tells us by his Prophet Ezekiel 18 Ezek. 21 24. If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die all his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live But when 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 the righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his trespass that he hath trespassed and in his sin that he hath sinned in them shall he die And throughout the New Testament the reward is promised only to those who continue to the end And what I have now discoursed gives a plain account of this for our whole life is a state of trial and probation and if we leave off before our work be done if we stop or run backwards before we come to the end of our race we must lose our reward our crown the Christian Life is a state of Warfare and we know the last Battel gives the final Conquest and this cannot be otherwise because what comes last undoes what went before when a wicked Man turns from his wickedness and does good God in infinite Mercy thro' the Merits and Mediation of Christ will forgive his sins because he has put them away from him and undone them by repentance and a new life when a righteous Man turns from his righteousness and does wickedly his righteousness shall be forgotten because he has renounced it and parted with it and is a righteous Man no longer Now when God comes to judge the World he will judge Men as he then finds them he will not inquire what they have been but what they are he will not condemn a righteous Man because he has been wicked nor justifie a wicked Man because he has been righteous for this would be to punish the Righteous and to reward the Wicked Such as we are when we die such we shall continue for ever and therefore it is the last scene of our lives which determines our future state And should not this make us very jealous and watchful over ourselves To take heed lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living GOD. Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of GOD lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled lest after we have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ we are again entangled therein and overcome and it happen to us according to the true proverb The dog is turned to his vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire This as the same Apostle tells us makes our latter end worse than the beginning for it had been better for us not to have known the way of righteousness than after we have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to us Let those consider this who have been blessed with a religious Education and trained up in the exercises of Piety and Vertue who have preserved themselves from the pollutions of youthful Lusts and spent their vigorous age in the service of God Can you be contented to lose all these hopeful beginnings to lose all your triumphs and victories over the World and the Flesh When you have out-rid all the storms and hurricanes of a tempting World for so many Years will you suffer yourselves to be shipwracked in the Haven When you are come within view of the promised Land will you suffer your hearts then to fail you will you then murmur and rebel against God and die in the Wilderness There has been a very warm Dispute about the Perseverance of Saints Whether those who are once in a state of Grace shall always continue so I will not undertake
neither For there is no foundation that I know of for what some pretend that God has given us greater power over our own lives than over other Mens We find no such power given us in Scripture which is the only revelation of God's will and I am sure Nature teaches us no such thing nay Nature teaches the quite contrary the natural aversions to Death and the natural principle of Self-preservation were not only intended to make us cautious of any hurt or mischief which other Men may do us but to make us careful to do no hurt to much less to destroy ourselves and therefore the voice of Nature is That we must preserve our own lives and being When God made us he did not make us the absolute Lords and Masters of our selves we cannot dispose of ourselves as we please but are his Creatures and Subjects and must receive Laws from him and that in such instances wherein the injury is done only to ourselves We must not abuse our own Bodies by Intemperance and Luxury or Lust though neither the Publick nor any private persons are injured by it and if we have not power over our own Bodies in lesser instances much less to kill them And if it be a sin to destroy our own lives it is the most mortal and damning sin for it destroys Soul and Body together because it makes our repentance impossible unless Men can repent of their sin and obtain God's pardon for it before they have committed it or can repent and obtain their pardon in the next World. Did Men seriously consider this it is impossible that the greatest shame and infamy want or suffering or whatever it is that makes them weary of life should be thought so intolerable as to make them force their passage into the other World to escape it when such a violent and unnatural escape will cost them their Souls Men may be in such evil circumstances as make death desirable but no considering Man will exchange the sufferings of this life for the endless miseries of the next If we cannot destroy our Lives and put an end to our present sufferings without destroying our Souls too we must be contented to live on and bear our lot patiently in this World which whatever it is is much more easie and tolerable than to be eternally miserable And yet God forbid that I should pronounce a final and peremptory Sentence upon all those unfortunate persons who have died by their own hands We know not what allowances God may make for some Mens opinion of the lawfulness of it and for the distraction of other Mens thoughts and passions thro' a setled melancholy or some violent temptation My business is not to limit the Soveraign and Prerogative Grace of God but to declare the nature of the thing according to the Terms of the Gospel To Murder ourselves is the most unnatural Murder it is a damning Sin and such a sin as no Man can repent of in this World and therefore unless God forgive it without repentance it can never be forgiven and the Gospel of Christ gives us no commission to preach Forgiveness of Sin without Repentance the Gospel-grace which only forgives Penitents cannot save such Men and he is a very bold Man and ventures very far upon unpromised and uncovenanted Mercy who will commit a sin which the Grace of the Gospel cannot pardon All that I have to add under this Head is the case of those who die in despair of God's Mercy This is commonly thought a very hopeless state for to despair of the mercy of God is a great sin and therefore such Men die in the actual commission of sin unrepented of and By-standers are apt to suspect their despair to be little better than their final doom and sentence and yet many times we see Men labouring under despair in their last Agonies who have to all outward appearance lived very innocent and vertuous lives and it is hard to judge so severely of them as to think they were secret Hypocrites and that God has finally rejected them because they pass such a severe judgment upon themselves Now I confess despair is as uncomfortable a state as any Man can die in but I cannot think it so fatal and dangerous as some imagine for let us consider what the nature of Despair is and wherein the sinfulness of it consists To disbelieve the Promises of Grace and Mercy made to true penitent Sinners by Jesus Christ is Infidelity not Despair and this indeed is a great and unpardonable sin for it is to renounce the Faith of Christ and the Grace of the Gospel but this is not what we commonly call Despair Such men believe the Gospel of Christ and all the Promises of it as firmly as others do they do not doubt but God will forgive all true Penitents through the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ and therefore are as true and sincere Believers as those who do not despair but their despair is in the application of these Promises to themselves that is they fear that they are not within the Terms and Conditions of Gospel-grace that they are not true Penitents that their Day of Grace is expired and now they shall not receive the Blessing though as Esau did they seek it earnestly with tears or it may be that they are Reprobates who have no right to the Promises of the Gospel Now if these Men may upon all other accounts be very good Christians but are either oppressed with melancholy or disturbed with false and mistaken notions of Religion can we think that their melancholy or mistakes which make them pass so false a judgment upon themselves shall make God condemn them too who knows them better than they know themselves Should a Man who has a delirous fancy accuse himself of Theft or Murder or Treason which he was never guilty of would a just and righteous Judge who certainly knows that he is not gulty of these crimes condemn him only because he condemns himself Suppose a Man who is in the right way to Heaven should be perswaded by some Travellers he meets that he has mistaken his way and upon this he should fall into great horrors and agonies and give himself for lost is this Man ever the further off of Heaven because he is perswaded that he has mistaken the way The false judgments dying Men make of themselves either through Enthusiasm Presumption or Despair shall not determine their final State Men may go to Hell with all the triumphs of a deluded fancy which promises nothing less than eternal Glories and those who go trembling out of this World may find themselves happily mistaken in the next It is a wrong notion of justifying Faith which makes Men conclude Despair to be so damning and unpardonable a Sin if justifying Faith were nothing else but a strong belief and perswasion that we are justified there were good reason to conclude Despair to be a mortal Sin because it is
a direct contradiction to justifying Faith nay if the justifying act of Faith were an actual reliance and recumbency on Christ for Salvation Despair must be very mortal because while Men are under these Agonies they do not they cannot rely on Christ for Salvation for they believe that Christ has cast them off and will not save them but if to believe in Christ that he is the Saviour of the World that he has made expiation for our Sins and intercedes for us at the right hand of God and is able to save to the uttermost all those that come unto God by him that he will save all true penitent Sinners and will save us if we be true Penitents I say if such a Faith as this when it brings forth the genuine fruits of Repentance and a holy Life be a true justifing Faith this is consistent with the blackest Despair and then Men may be in a justified state though they are never so strongly perswaded that they are Reprobates A very good Man may have his fancy disturbed and may pass a false judgment upon himself but this is no reason for God to condemn him no more than God will justifie a presuming and enthusiastick Hypocrite because he justifies himself 4. If Death put a final end to our Work and Labour and shuts up our Accounts then it concerns us to do all the good that we can while we live What ever our hand findeth to do we should do it with all our might seeing there is no wisdom nor knowledge nor working in the grave whither we are hasting Not that the next World is an idle and unactive State where we shall know nothing and have nothing to do but Death puts an end to our working for the other World nothing can be brought to our account at the Day of Judgment but the good we do while we live here for this onely we shall receive our reward proportionable to the encrease and wise improvement of our Talents And is not this a good reason why we should begin to serve God betimes and to take all opportunities of doing good since we have only a short life to work in for Eternity There are great and glorious rewards prepared for good Men but those shall have the brightest Crown who do the most good in the World who are rich in good works and lay up for themselves treasures in heaven Indeed the meanest place in Heaven is a happiness too great for us to conceive I 'm sure much greater than our greatest deserts but since our bountiful Lord will reward all the good service we do why should we neglect doing any good when such neglects will lessen our reward why should we be contented to lose any degrees of Glory This is a holy Ambition to be as good and to be as happy as God can make us This is never thought of by those Men who have no greater designs than to escape Hell but as for the Glories of Heaven they can be contented with the least share of them No Man will ever get to Heaven who so despises the Glories of it and if a late repentance should open our eyes not only to see our sins but to alter our opinions of this World and of the next yet we can never recal our past time and that little time that remains which is the very dregs and sediment of our lives the dead and unactive Scene will minister very few opportunities of doing good and if it did we are capable of doing very little and if we get to Heaven that will be all but the bright and triumphant Crowns shall be bestowed upon those who have improved their time and their talents better It is the good we do while we live that shall be rewarded and therefore we must take care to do good while we live It is well when Men who do no good while they live will remember to do some good when they die But if God should accept such presents as these yet it will make great abatements in the account that they kept their Riches themselves as long as they could and would part with nothing to God till they could keep it no longer it is not the Gift but the mind of the Giver that is accepted Under the Gospel God is pleased with a living Sacrifice but the Offerings of the Dead and such these Testimentary Charities are which are intended to have no effect as long as we live are no better than dead Sacrifices and it may be questioned whether they will be brought into the account of our lives if we did no good while we lived The case is different as to those who did all the good they could while they lived and when they saw they could live no longer took care to do good after death such surviving Charities as these prolong our lives and add daily to our account when such Men are removed into the other World they are doing good in this would still they have a Stock a going below the increase and improvements of which will follow them into the other World Men who have been charitable all their lives may prolong their Charity after death and this will be brought to the Account of their Lives but I cannot see how a Charity which commences after death can be called doing good while we live and then it cannot belong to the Account of our Lives all that can be said for it is this That they make their Wills whereby they bequeath these Charities while they live and therefore their bequeathing these Charities is an act of their Lives but they never intend they shall take place while they live but after their death and when they never intend their Charity to be an act of their Lives I know not why God should account it so These Death-bed Charities are too like a Death-bed Repentance Men seem to give their Estates to God and the Poor just as they part with their Sins when they can keep them no longer This is much such a Charity as it is Devotion to bequeath our dead Bodies to the Church or Chancel which we would never visit while we lived But yet as I have already intimated this is the only way to prolong our Lives and to have an increasing Account after death to lay the foundations of some great good to the World which shall out live us which like Seed sown in the Earth shall spring up and yeild a plentiful Harvest while we sleep sweetly in the dust such as the religious Education of our Children and Families which may propagate itself in the World and last many Ages after we are dead the Endowment of Publick Schools and Hospitals in a word whatever is for the Relief of the Necessities or for the Instruction and good Government of Mankind when we are gone To do good while we live and to lay designs of great good to future Generations will both come into our Account and this may extend the Account of our
Lives much beyond the short Period of them in this World. 5. If Death puts an end to our Account methinks a Dying-bed is a little of the latest to begin it for this is to begin just where we must end The Account of our Lives is the Account of the Good or Evil we have done while we lived And what account can a dying Man give of this who has spent his whole life in sin and wickedness If he must be judged according to what he hath done in the Body how sad is his account and how impossible is it for him to mend it now For when he is just a dying it is too late for him to begin to live If without holiness no man shall see God how hopeless is his condition who has lived a wicked and profligate life all his days and is now past living and therefore past living a holy life A Man who is confined to a sick and dying Bed is uncapable of exercising the vertues of life his time of work is over almost as perfectly over as if he were dead and therefore his account is finished and he must expect his reward according to what he has already done No you 'll say he may still repent of his sins and a true Penitent shall find mercy even at his last gasp Now I readily grant that all true Penitents shall be saved whensoever they truly repent but it is hard to think that any dying sorrows or the dying vows and resolutions of Sinners shall be accepted by GOD for true repentance The mistakes of this matter are very fatal and therefore I shall briefly explain it In expounding the Promises of the Gospel we must take care to reconcile the Gospel to itself and not make one part of it contradict or overthrow another now as the Gospel promises pardon of sin to true Repentance so it makes Holiness of life as necessary a condition of Salvation as true Repentance Without holiness no man shall see GOD. GOD will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil but glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good Be not deceived GOD is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting The Promises of forgiveness to Repentance are not more express than these Texts are which declare that we shall be rewarded according to our works and we have as much reason to believe the one as the other and if we believe the Gospel we must believe them both and then Repentance and a holy Life are both necessary to Salvation and then the dying sorrows of Sinners who have lived very wicked lives and are past mending them now cannot be true saving Repentance If sorrow for sin without a holy life can carry Men to Heaven then I 'm sure Holiness is not necessary then Men may see God without Holiness and then the promises of pardon to Repentance if this dying Sorrow be true Repentance overthrows the necessity of a holy Life the necessity of a holy Life contradicts the promises of pardon to such Penitents and then either one or both of them must be false To state this Matter plainly and in a few words we must distinguish between two kinds of Repentance 1. The Baptismal Repentance 2. Repentance upon a Relapse or falling into any known and wilful Sin. I. By Baptismal Repentance I mean that Repentance which is necessary in adult persons in order to their receiving Christian Baptism this is the Repentance which is most frequently mentioned in the New Testament and to which the promise of Remission and Forgiveness is annexed this our Saviour preached Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand 4 Matth. 17. This he gave authority to his Apostles to preach That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his Name among all nations 24 Luke 47. Now this Repentance both as to Iews and Heathens who embraced the Faith of Christ was a renouncing all their former Sins and false superstitious or idolatrous Worship and this qualified them for Baptism in which they obtain'd the remission of all their Sins in the Name of Christ and for this reason remission of Sins is promised to Repentance because all such Penitents are received to Baptism which is the washing of Regeneration which washes away all their Sins and puts them into a state of Grace and Favour with God as St. Peter tells the Iews Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Iesus Christ for the remission of sins 2 Acts 38. And much to the same purpose Ananias told St. Paul Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins calling on the Name of the Lord 22 Acts 16. And I know not any one Text in the New Testament wherein the remission of Sins is absolutely promised to Repentance but what must be understood of this Baptismal Repentance and then Repentance and Remission of Sin are inseparably annexed because such Penitents wash away all their Sins in Baptism and come pure and undefiled out of that mystical Fountain which is set open for Sin and for Uncleanness to wash in and to be clean Now I grant should any person who comes to Baptism rightly qualified and disposed with a sincere Repentance and stedfast Faith in Christ die soon after he is baptized before he has time and opportunity to exercise any of the Graces of the Christian Life such a Man shall go to Heaven without actual Holiness the remission of his Sins in Baptism upon his Repentance will save him though he have not time to bring forth the fruits of Repentance in a holy Life and this is the only case I know of wherein a Penitent can be saved without actual Holiness viz. by Baptismal Grace and Regeneration Only the Primitive Church and I think with very good reason allowed the same to Martyrdom when it prevented the Baptism of young Converts as we know under the Pagan Persecutions young Converts who made bold confessions of their Faith in Christ were hurried away to Martyrdom before they had opportunity of being baptized but such Men were baptized in their own Bloud and that supplied the want of Water-baptism which they could not have Now in this case also if Martyrdom be instead of Baptism as the Primitive Church thought it then had any Heathen been converted from a lewd and profligate life to the Faith of Christ and been immediately apprehended and halled to Martyrdom before he could either be baptized or give any other testimony of the reformation of his Life and Manners but by dying
a Martyr this Man also would go to Heaven without actual Holiness of Life as a baptized Penitent who dies immediately after his Baptism shall And this seems to me to give the best account of the case of the Penitent Thief upon the Cross which one example has encouraged so many Sinners to delay their Repentance to the last minute and has destroyed so many Souls by such delays His case seems to be this It is probable he had heard of Christ and the fame of his great Miracles before and that opinion some had of him that he was that Messias whom God had promised to send into the World for we can hardly think that any Man who lived in those days should never have heard of Christ whose fame went through the whole Nation but yet the course of life this Thief lead gave him no great curiosity to inquire into such matters till he was apprehended for Robbery and condemned to die at the same time with Christ this extraordinary accident made him more curiously inquire after him and learn all the circumstances of his apprehension and trial and usage and behaviour and answers especially when he saw him and was to die with him and in short he observed so much as convinced him that he was the true Messias though he saw him nailed in so shameful a manner to the Cross. Now if this was his case and we must suppose this or something like it unless we will say that he was miraculously inspired upon the Cross with the Faith of Christ without knowing any thing of him before which has no foundation in the Story and is without any president or example I say if this was his case according to the principles laid down we must grant that if this Thief had renounced his wicked course of Life and professed his Faith in Christ and been baptized in his Name though he had immediately suffered upon the Cross he must have gone directly to Heaven or Paradise as Christ promised him he should by vertue of the remission of all his sins in Baptism Nay we must grant farther that if instead of Baptism he had at that time died a Martyr for the profession of his Faith in Christ this would have supplied the place of Baptism and translated him to Paradise All then that we have to enquire is whether his Confession of Christ upon the Cross might not as well supply the want of Water-baptism as Martyrdom nay whether it were not equivalent to Martyrdom it self and might not reasonably be accepted by our Saviour as such Water-baptism he could not have a Martyr he could not die for he died a Malefactor but he confessed his Faith in Christ when he saw him hanging upon the Cross which was a more glorious Act of Faith than to have died upon the Cross for him He confessed Christ when his own Disciples fled from him and when Peter himself denied him and discovered his glory through the meanest disguise that ever it was concealed under even in this World And why should not this pass for the Faith and Confession of Martyrdom And then the Thief upon the Cross was saved as by Baptism which is No tthe putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards GOD 1 Pet. 3. 21. Which description of Baptism gives us a plain reason why Martyrdom should supply the place of Baptism and is as good a reason why the Thief 's Confession of Christ upon the Cross should do so This example then of the Thief upon the Cross is no reasonable encouragement to any baptized Christian to live a wicked Life and delay his Repentance till the hour of Death in hopes of being saved at last as he was for he was saved as new repenting Converts are by Baptism not as baptized Sinners hope to be by a Death-bed Sorrow and Remorse of Concience And yet this is the only example which with any shew of reason is alledged to prove the sufficiency of a Death-bed Repentance for the Parable of the Labourers who were called to work in the Vineyard at different hours some early in the morning others at the third the sixth the eleventh hour of the day is nothing at all to this purpose The several hours of the day in that Parable do not signifie the several hours of Mens lives but the different ages of the World and therefore those Labourers who are called into the Vineyard about the eleventh hour of the World that is towards the end or in the last age of the World might be called at the beginning of their lives and work on to the end of them for the design of that Parable is to shew that the Gentiles who were called into the Vine-yard or received into the Church of Christ towards the conclusion of the World should be admitted to equal Priviledges and Rewards with the Iews who were God's ancient People and had been called into the Vine-yard early in the morning which occasioned their murmuring against the good Man of the House as we know the Iews murmured upon this account and nothing more prejudiced them against the Gospel of our Saviour than that the Gentiles were received into the Church without Circumcision The same thing our Saviour represents in the Parable of the Prodigal the return of the Prodigal to his Father's House is the Conversion of the Gentiles who were the younger Brother and had been a great Prodigal for many Ages the elder Brother who always lived at home with his Father was the Iewish Church but when this young Prodigal was received by his Father with Feasting and Musick and all the expressions of Joy the elder Brother grew jealous of it and thought himself much injured by his Father's fondness for the returning Prodigal and refused to come in and bear his part in the Solemnity as the Iews rejected the Gospel because the Gentiles were received into the Church And that this must be the true meaning of the Parable of the Labourers appears from this that those who were called into the Vine-yard at the eleventh hour received a reward equal to those who had born the heat and burden of the day which is agreeable enough if we expound it of different Ages of the Church for there is great reason why the Gentiles though they came later into the Vine-yard should be made at least equal with the Iews who were God's ancient People but if we expound this of entring into the Vine-yard at different ages of our life it seems very unequal that those who begin a life of Vertue just at the conclusion of their lives should be equally rewarded with those who have spent their whole lives in the service of God that is that these who do very little good shall receive as great a reward as those who do a hundred times as much which is a direct contradiction to the scope and design of our Saviour's Parables about the Pounds and Talents 25 Matt. 14
as the Iews did when they crucified him which is as much crucifying him again and exposing him to publick shame and infamy as they can possibly do But now this Description can relate only to total Apostates for whatever sins professed Christians are guilty of though thereby they reproach their Lord and Saviour yet they do not declare him to be an Impostor who justly suffered on the Cross and whom they would condemn to the same ignominious Death again if they could nay those who are conquered by some powerful and surprizing fears to deny Christ as Peter did or to offer Sacrifice to Idols as many Christians did under the Heathen Persecutions and recover themselves again by Repentance are not included in this severe Sentence for such Men do really believe in Christ still do not heartily renounce their Baptismal Faith and therefore do not lose their Baptism though in word and deed at present they deny Christ the case of such Men is very dangerous for our Saviour tells us Whosoever shall deny me before men him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven 10 Mat. 33. Those who through fear of Men persist in such a denial shall not be saved by a secret and dissembled Faith for we must not only believe in Christ but we must openly profess our Faith in him but such Men may be recovered by Repentance and by a bold Confession of Christ in new Dangers and Temptations these are lapsed Christians but not Apostates as Iulian was who hated the Name and Religion of Christ and therefore they were admitted to Repentance in the Christian Church as not having lost their Baptismal Faith though through fear they denied it 3. Of these total Apostates the Apostle tells us That it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysostom renders it to make them new Creatures again by Baptismal Repentance for so he tells us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that to be renewed is to be made new which can be done only by Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baptism only can make us new Creatures The danger then of these Mens case as the Apostle represents it is this That they having totally Apostatized from the Faith of Christ together with their Faith have lost their Baptism and are become Iews and Pagans again now Iews and Pagans can never be made Christians without Baptism wherein they are regenerated and new made and by the same reason these Apostatized Christians who are become Iews and Pagans can never become Christians again unless they be rebaptized and that they cannot be because there is but one Baptism in the Christian Church and therefore though we could suppose that they should believe again and repent of their sins they could never recover a legal Right and Title to Mercy and the Promises of the Gospel-Covenant Faith and Repentance will not justifie a Heathen without Baptism for he that believes and is baptized shall be saved are the express terms of the Covenant and therefore the condition of Apostates is very hopeless who are relapsed into such a state that nothing but Baptismal Grace and Regeneration nothing but being new made and new born can save them and that they cannot have for they must not be baptized again A Christian must be but once born no more than a Man is which possibly is the reason why St. Peter tells us of such Apostates That their later end is worse with them than their beginning 2 Pet. 2. 20. for Iews and Heathens how wicked soever they were might wash away all their sins in Baptism but such Apostates are like a sow that was washed that returns again to her wallowing in the mire When they had washed away their Sins and Infidelity in Baptism they return to their forsaken Paganism again and lose the effect of their first Washing and there is no second Baptismal Washing to be had The Apostle does not say that it is impossible these Men should be saved but it is impossible they should be regenerated again by Baptism which is the only Gospel-state of Salvation If any such Men be saved they must be saved as I observed before by Uncovenanted Grace and Mercy they are in the state of Unbaptized Iews and Heathens not of Christians who have a Covenant-right to God's Promises and I would desire the baptized Atheists and Infidels of our Age to consider of this whose case is so very like this if it be not the same that it should make them afraid of setting up for Wits at such infinite peril of their Souls To apply this then to our present purpose What I have now discoursed plainly shews that a baptized Christian must not always expect to be saved by such Grace as saves and justifies in Baptism Baptismal Grace is inseparably annexed to Baptism and can be no more repeated than Baptism This makes the case of Apostates so desparate that Infidelity can be washed away only in Baptism and those who Apostatize after Baptism can never be rebaptized again and therefore can never have any Covenant-title to Pardon and Forgiveness And this proportionably holds good in our present case the Grace of Baptism washes away all the Sins of our past lives how many how great soever they have been only upon our profession of our Faith in Christ and Repentance of all our Sins and Vows of Obedience to the Laws of Christ for the future but whoever after Baptism lives a wicked and profligate life and hopes to be saved at last only by Faith in Christ and sorrow for his Sins and vows of living better when he is just a dying will be miserably mistaken for this is onely the Grace of Baptism which can never be repeated not the rule and measure whereby God will judge baptized Christians who have had time and opportunity of exercising those Christian Graces which they vowed at their Baptism A Man who retains the Faith of Christ though he lives wickedly does not forfeit his Baptism but shall be forgiven whenever he repents and forsakes his sins and lives a holy life but if he delays this so long that he has no time to amend his life that he can do nothing but be sorry for his sins and vow a new life I cannot promise him that this shall be accepted at the hour of death because the Gospel requires a Holy Life not meerly a Death-bed sorrow and remorse for Sin Sorrow for Sin and Vows of a new Life will be accepted at Baptism as the beginnings of a new Life but that is no reason why they should be accepted at our Death when they are only the forrowful conclusion of a wicked Life God will receive us to Grace and Mercy at Baptism upon our solemn Vows of living to him but he has no where promised to accept of our dying Vows instead of Holiness and Obedience as a recompence for a whole
Apostles this state of Penitence in some cases was continued many years in other cases such Sinners were never reconciled till the hour of death Now if they had thought as many among us now do that sorrow for Sin and the vows of Obedience do immediately obtain our Pardon from God for sins committed after Baptism it is not imaginable why they should have imposed such a long and severe Discipline on Penitents If they believed God had forgiven them why should not the Church forgive them and receive them them to her Communion again upon their promises of amendment without such a long trial of their reformation But it is evident they thought sins after Baptism not forgiven without actual reformation and therefore would not receive them to Communion again without a tried and visible reformation of their Lives We know what Disputes there were about this matter in the Primitive Church the ancient Discipline allowed but of one Repentance after Baptism and some would not allow of that in the case of Adultery Murder and Idolatry but denied the Authority of the Church to receive such Sinners to Communion again this was the pretence of Novatus's Schism and Tertullian after he turn'd Montanist said many bitter things against the Catholicks upon this argument which seemed to question the validity of Repentance it self after Baptism though it did reform Mens lives but though this was a great deal too much and did both lessen the Grace of the Gospel and the Authority which Christ had given to his Church yet it is evident that all this time they were very far from thinking that some dying Sorrows or dying Vows after a wicked Life would carry Men to Heaven and the Judgment of those first and purest Ages of the Church ought at least to make Men afraid of relying on such a Death-bed Repentance as they thought very ineffectual to save Sinners CHAP. IV. Concerning the Fear of Death and the Remedies against it DEath is commonly and very truly called the King of Terrors as being the most formidable thing to Humane Nature the love of Life and the natural principle of Self-preservation begets in all Men a natural Aversion against Death and this is the natural Fear of Dying this is very much encreased by a great fondness and passion for this World which makes such Men especially while they are happy and prosperous very unwilling to leave it and this is still encreased by a sence of Guilt and the fear of Punishment in the next World All these are of a distinct nature and require sutable Remedies and therefore I shall distinctly consider them I. The natural Fear of Death results from Self-preservation and the love of our own being for light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun 11 Eccles. 7. All Men love Life and the necessary consequence of that is to fear Death though this is rather a natural Instinct than the effect of Reason and Discourse There are great and wise Reasons why God should imprint this Aversion to Death on Humane Nature because it obliges us to take care of ourselves and to avoid every thing which will destroy or shorten our lives this in many cases is a great principle of Vertue as it preserves us from all fatal and destructive Vices it is a great Instrument of Government and makes Men afraid of committing such Villanies as the Laws of their Country have made capital and therefore since the natural Fear of Death is of such great advantage to us we must be contented with it though it makes the thoughts of dying a little uneasie especially if we consider that when this natural Fear of Death is not encreased by other causes of which more presently it may be conquered or allayed by Reason and wise Consideration for this is not so strong an Aversion but it may be conquered the miseries and calamities of this Life very often reconcile Men to Death and make them passionately desire it Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery and life to the bitter in soul which long for death but it cometh not and digg for it more then for hid treasures which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave 3 Job 20 21 22. My soul chuseth strangling and death rather than life I loath it I would not live alway let me alone for my days are vanity 7 Job 15 16. And if the sence of present Sufferings can conquer the fears of Death there is no doubt but the hope of immortal Life may do it also for the fear of Death is not an original and primitive Passion but results from the love of ourselves from the love of life and our own being and therefore when we can separate the fear of Death from Self-love it is easily conquered when Men are sensible that life is no kindness to them but only serves to prolong their misery they are so far from being afraid of Death that they court it and were they as thoroughly convinc'd that when they die Death will translate them to a more happy Life it would be as easie a thing to put off these Bodies as to change their Cloaths or to leave an old and ruinous House for a more beautiful and convenient Habitation If we set aside the natural Aversion and inquire into the reasons of this natural Fear of Death we can think of but these two Either Men are afraid that when they die they shall cease to be or at least they know not what they shall be and are unwilling to exchange this present life which they like very well for they know not what But now both these reasons of Fear are taken away by the Revelation of the Gospel which has brought Life and Immortality to light and when the reasons of our Fear are gone such an unaccountable Aversion and Reluctancy to Death signifies little more than to make us patient of living rather than unwilling to die for a Man who has such a new glorious World such a happy immortal Life in his view could not very contentedly delay his removal thither were not Death in the way which he naturally startles at and draws back from though his reason sees nothing frightful or terrible in it The plain and short account then of this matter is this We must not expect wholly to conquer our natural Aversion to Death St. Paul himself did not desire to be uncloathed but cloathed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life 2 Cor. 3 4. Were there not some remaining aversions to Death mixed with our hopes and desires of Immortality Martyrdom itself excepting the patient enduring the shame and the torments of it would be no Vertue but though this natural aversion to Death cannot be wholly conquered it may be extreamly lessened and brought next to nothing by the certain belief and expectation of a glorious Immortality and therefore the only way to arm ourselves against these natural fears of
dying is to confirm our selves in this belief that Death does not put an end to us that our Souls shall survive in a state of Bliss and Happiness when our Bodies shall rot in their Graves and that these mortal Bodies themselves shall at the sound of the last Trump rise again out of the dust immortal and glorious A Man who believes and expects this can have no reason to be afraid of Death nay he has great reason not to fear Death and that will reconcile him to the thoughts of it though he trembles a little under the weaknesses and aversions of Nature II. Besides the natural Aversions to Death most Men have contracted a great fondness and passion for this World and that makes them so unwilling to leave it whatever glorious things they hear of another World they see what is to be had in this and they like it so well that they do not expect to mend themselves but if they were at their choice would stay where they are and this is a double death to them to be snatched away from their admired enjoyments and to leave whatever they love and delight in behind them and there is no remedy that I know of for these Men to cure their fears of Death but only to rectifie their mistaken opinions of things to open their eyes to see the Vanity of this World and the brighter and more dazling Glories of the next There are different degrees of this and therefore this remedy must be differently applied some Men are wholly sunk into flesh and sence and have no tast at all of rational and manly Pleasures much less of those which are purely intellectual and divine they are Slaves to their lusts lay no restraints on their bruitish appetites the World is their God and they dote on the riches and pleasures and honours of it as the only real and substantial goods Now these Men have great reason to be afraid of Death for when they go out of this World they will find nothing that belongs to this World in the next and thus their happiness and their lives must end together It is fitting they should fear Death for if the fear of Death will not cure their fondness for this World nothing else can you must not expect to perswade them that the next World is a happier place than this but the best way is to set before them the terrors of the next World those Lakes of Fire and Brimstone prepared for the Devil and his Angels to ask them our Saviour's question What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul These Men ought to fear on till the fear of Death cures their vicious passion and fondness for this World and then the fear of Death will by degrees cure itself Others there are who have a true reverence for God and govern their inclinations and passions to the things of this World with regard to his Laws they will not raise an Estate by Injustice Oppression or Perjury they will not transgress the Rules of Sobriety and Modesty in the use of sensual Pleasures they will not purchase the honours and preferments of this World at the price of their Souls but yet they love this World very well and are extreamly delighted in the enjoyments of it they have a plentiful Fortune or a thriving Trade or the Favour of their Prince they live at ease and think this World a very pleasant place and are ready to cry It is good for us to be here Now it cannot be avoided but that in proportion to Mens love of this World though it be not an immoral and irregular passion they will be more afraid and more unwilling to leave it when we are in the full enjoyment of an earthly Felicity it is difficult for very good Men to have such a strong and vigorous sence of the next World as to make them willing and contented to leave this they desire to go to Heaven but they are not over-hasty in their desires they can be better pleased if God sees fit to stay here a little longer and when they find themselves a going are apt to cast back their eyes upon this World as those who are loth to part This makes it so necessary for God to exercise even good Men with afflictions and sufferings to wean them from this World which is a Scene of Misery and to raise their hearts to Heaven where true and unmixt Happiness dwells The only way then to cure this fear of Death is to mortifie all remains of love and affection for this World to withdraw ourselves as much as may be from the conversation of it to use it very sparingly and with great indifferency to supply the wants of Nature rather than to enjoy the pleasures of it to have our conversation in Heaven to meditate on the glories of that blessed Place to live in this World upon the hopes of unseen things to accustom our selves to the work and to the pleasures of Heaven to praise and adore the Great Maker and Redeemer of the World to mingle ourselves with the heavenly Quire and possess our very fancies and imaginations with the glory and happiness of seeing GOD and the Blessed JESUS of dwelling in his immediate Presence of conversing with Saints and Angels this is to live like Strangers in this World and like Citizens of Heaven and then it will be as easie to us to leave this World for Heaven as it is for a Traveller to leave a foreign Country to return home This is the height and perfection of Christian Vertue it is our mortifying the Flesh with its affections and lusts it is our dying to this World and living to God and when we are dead to this World the fear of dying and leaving this World is over For what should a Man do in this World who is dead to it When we are alive to God nothing can be so desirable as to go to him for here we live to God only by Faith and Hope but that is the proper place for this divine Life where God dwells So that in short a life of Faith as it is our Victory over this World so it is our Victory over Death too it disarms it of all its fears and terrors it raises our hearts so much above this World that we are very well pleased to get rid of these Bodies which keep us here and to leave them in the Grave in hopes of a blessed Resurrection III. The most tormenting Fears of Death are owing to a sence of Guilt which indeed are rather a fear of Judgement than of Death or a fear of Death as it sends us to Judgment and here we must distinguish between three sorts of Men whose Case is very different 1. Those who are very good Men who have made it the care of their lives to please GOD and to save their Souls 2. Those who have
lived very ungodly Lives and are now awakened by the approaches of Death to see an angry and provoked Judge an injured Saviour a righteous Tribunal and think they hear that fatal Doom and Sentence pronounced on them by their own Consciences Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels 3. Those who are doubtful of their own condition and are apt to fear the worst 1. As for the first sort of these Men who have sincerely endeavour'd to please GOD and have the testimony of their Consciences that in simplicity and godly sincerity they have had their conversation in this World Christ has delivered them from all their fears by his death upon the Cross and his Intercession for them at the right hand of God The best Men dare not stand the trial of strict and impartial Justice they are conscious to themselves of so many sins or such great imperfections and defects that their onely hope is in the Mercy of GOD thro' the Merits and Mediation of CHRIST and in this hope they can triumph over Death as St. Paul does O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be to GOD who hath given us the victory by our Lord Iesus Christ who destroyed Sin and plucked out the sting of Death by his Death upon the Cross who triumphed over Death by his Resurrection from the Dead and is invested with Power to raise all his true Disciples from the Dead Is able to save to the uttermost all those that come unto GOD by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them This is the happy state of good Men when they come to die they can look into the other World without terrour where they see not a Court of Justice but a Throne of Grace where they see a Father not a Judge a Saviour who died for them and has redeemed them with his own Blood What a blessed Calm and Serenity possesses their Souls nay what Joy and Triumph transports them How do their souls magnifie the Lord and their spirits rejoyce in GOD their Saviour when they see him ready to pronounce them blessed and to set the Crown upon their heads Who would not die the death of the righteous and desire that his latter end may be like his What wise Man would not live the life of the Righteous that his latter end may be like his that in the agonies of Death and in the very jaws of the Grave no disturbed thoughts may discompose him no guilty fears distract him but he may go out of the World with all the joyful presages of eternal Rest and Peace 2. As for wicked Men who never concerned themselves with the thoughts of God and another World while they were in health many times a dangerous Sickness which gives them a nearer view of Death and Judgment awakens their Consciences and overwhelms them with the unsupportable terrors of future Vengeance then they begin to lament their ill-spent lives to tremble before that just and righteous Judge whom they have provoked by repeated Villanies whose Being they formerly denied or whose Power and Justice they desied now they cry passionately to Christ for Mercy and will needs have him to be their Saviour though they would not own him for their Lord nor submit to his Laws and Government now these Men are mighty earnest for comfort the Minister who was the subject of their Drollery before is sent for in great hast and it is expected from him that he should lull their Consciences asleep and send them quietly into another World to receive their doom there Now it is very fitting to let these Men know while they are well that there is no comfort to be had when they come to die For there is no peace saith my GOD to the wicked and no Man who knows them can speak Peace to them without making a new Gospel or corrupting the old one What I have already discourst concerning a Death-bed Repentance is a plain proof of this but though we set aside all that and proceed upon the common principle That a true Penitent whenever he sincerely repents thô it be upon his Death-bed after a long life of wickedness shall be pardoned and rewarded by God yet upon these principles it is impossible that a wicked Man when he comes to die should have any Comfort without a vain and Enthusiastick Presumption and the reason is very plain because it is impossible either for himself or others to judge whether his Repentance be true and sincere such a Repentance as if he were to live longer would reform his Life and bring forth the fruits of an universal Righteousness and it is agreed on all hands that no other Repentance but this can be accepted by God. Now it is absolutely impossible without a Revelation for any Man to know this who begins his Repentance upon a Death-bed he may feel indeed the bitter pangs and agonies of Sorrow and may be sincerely and heartily sorry that he has sinned And this every dying Sinner is who is sorrowful he is sincerely sorrowful that is he does not counterfeit a Sorrow but really feels it and I know nothing else to make Sorrow sincere but that it is real and not counterfeited and therefore to be sorrowful and to be sincerely sorrowful is the same thing And will any Man say that whoever is sorry for his sins when he comes to die shall be saved Then no Sinner can be damned who does not die an Atheist or stupid and distracted or suddenly without any warning for it is impossible for a Sinner who is in his wits and believes that wicked Men shall be eternally punished in the next World not to feel an amazing remorse and sorrow of mind when he sees himself just a falling into Hell. A dying Sorrow then though it may be sharp and severe almost to the degree of Amazement and Distraction and it is hard if such a Sorrow be not real and sincere is not saving Repentance and therefore though Sinners may feel themselves very heartily sorrowful this does not prove them to be true Penitents and yet this is the only evidence they can have of their Repentance and the only thing they rely on that they are sure their Sorrow is very sincere and I doubt not but it is for all true Sorrow is sincere but Sinners who are very sorry for their sins may be damned Since then sorrow for Sin is the onely evidence such Men can have of the sincerity of their Repentance let us consider whether the meer dying sorrows of Sinners be any evidence at all of this or what kind of evidence it is True Repentance does at least include a change of Mind a turning from our sins to God a deep sence of the evil of Sin and an abhorrance of ourselves for it a great reverence for God and for his Laws as
or the constant and uniform practice of an universal Righteousness And a great many such Signs have been invented which like strong Opiates asswage their pain and smart till their Consciences awake when it is too late in the next World. For all this is Cheat and Delusion as St. Iohn assures us Little children Let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous He that committeth sin is of the devil for the devil sinneth from the beginning for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil Whosoever is born of GOD doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of GOD. In this the children of GOD are manifest and the children of the devil whosoever doth not righteousness is not of GOD neither he that loveth not his brother This is the only sure Evidence for Heaven and therefore every Sin Men commit makes their state doubtful and this must fill them with perplexities and fears Men may cheat themselves with vain hopes and imaginations when they come to die but nothing can be a solid foundation for Peace and Security but an Universal Righteousness The CONCLUSION FOr the Conclusion of this Discourse I shall only observe in a few words that it must be the business of our whole Lives to prepare for Death Our Accounts must be always ready because we know not how soon we may be called to give an account of our Stewardship we must be always upon our Watch as not knowing at what hour our Lord will come A good Man who has taken care all his life to please God has little more to do when he sees Death approaching than to take leave of his Friends to bless his Children to support and comfort himself with the hopes of immortal Life and a glorious Resurrection and to resign up his Spirit into the hands of God and of his Saviour His Lamp is full of Oyl and always burning tho' it may need a little trimming when the Bridegroom comes some new acts of Faith and Hope and such devout Passions as are proper to be exercised at our leaving the World and going to God but when the Bridegroom is at the Door it is too late with the foolish Virgins to buy Oyl for our Lamps unless we be ready when the Bridegroom comes to enter in with him to the Marriage the Door will be shut against us Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh Some Men talk of preparing for Death as if it were a thing that could be done in two or three days and that the proper time of doing it were a little before they die but I know no other Preparation for Death but living well and thus we must every day prepare for Death and then we shall be well prepared when Death comes that is we shall be able to give a good account of our Lives and of the improvement of our Talents and he who can do this is well prepared to die and to go to Judgment but he who has spent all his days wickedly whatever care he may take when he comes to die to prepare himself for it it is certain he can never prepare a good Account of his past Life and all his other Preparations are little worth The END ADVERTISEMENT A Preservative against Popery in two Parts With a Vindication in Answer to the Cavils of Lewis Sabran a Jesuit By William Sherlock D. D. Master of the Temple Printed for W. Rogers 2. Heb. 14 15. See 5 Prov. 22 23. 7. 22 23 26 27. 3 Heb. 12. 12 Heb. 15. 2 Pet. 2. 20 21 22. 12 Heb. 14. 2 Rom. 6 7 8 9 10. 6 Gal. 7 8. 20 Mat. 1 c. 15 Luk. 11 c. 1 Rom. 18. 1 Cor. 6 9 10. 7 Mat. 21. 18 Mat. 21 22. 2 Acts 38 41. 3 Rom. 20 21 22 24. 5 Rom. 1. 2 Eph. 8 9. 5 Gal. 2 3. Ibid. 2 Rom. 13 25 26 27 28 29. 8 Rom. 4. 1 Cor. 15. 55 56 57. 7 Heb. 25. 1 John 3. 20 21. 1 John 3. 7 8 9 10. 25 Mat. 1 c.
life spent in Wickedness and Folly It is very seldom that such dying Sorrows or dying Vows are sincere and hearty but were they never so sincere as sometimes though very rarely we see that Men who recover from a dangerous Sickness keep the vows and promises they then made and that is a good proof that they were very sincere in making them yet I do not know any one promise in Scripture to a dying Repentance the Gospel requires actual holiness of life and when God cuts off such Men in their sins without allowing them any time to reform their lives it is very suspicious that he rejects their sorrows and their vows as Wisdom threatens 1 Prov. 24 c. Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded I also will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me I will not pre-judge the final state of these Men but if God accept of such a Death-bed Repentance which cannot produce the actual Fruits of Righteousness it is more than he has promised and more than he has given us authority to preach and we should consider what infinite hazard we run by such delays of Repentance that we cannot be saved by the express terms of the Gospel but if we be saved we must be saved by an unpromised and uncovenanted Grace and Mercy which how good soever God be we have no reason to rely on This I know will be thought very severe but I cannot help it it may terrify dying Sinners but there is less danger in that than in nursing Men up in the deluding hopes of a Death-bed Repentance which renders all the arguments and motives to a holy Life ineffectual and I fear eternally destroys as many as trust in it If you ask why Faith and Repentance without the actual obedience of our Lives should not as well be accepted by God on our Death-bed as it is at our Baptism I shall ask another very plain question Why a Husbandman who hires Labourers into his Vineyard in the morning receives them into his service protection and pay only upon their promise to be faithful and diligent in his work before they have done any thing I say when these Men have loitered away the day without working why should not he reward them at night because they then also profess themselves very sorry that they did not work and make a great many promises and vows that if they were to begin the day again they would A promise of faithfulness and diligence was reason enough why he should take them into his service but their sorrow for not working and their resolutions of working when the time of working is past is no reason why they should be rewarded or escape the punishment of Loiterers This is the very case here we are saved by the Mercies of God and the Merits of Christ which we partake of by our union to him this union is made in Baptism which incorporates us into the Body of Christ and from the very first moment of our union we are in a state of Grace and Justification our sins are washed away in his Blood as Water purges all bodily defilements and the Spirit of Christ dwells in us to renew and sanctify us now all that is required by God or that seems in the nature of the thing necessary to this Union is a general Repentance of all our Sins renouncing our former wicked course of Life professing our Faith in Christ as the Son of God and Saviour of the World and vowing Obedience to his Laws for this qualifies us to be his Disciples and to be received into his Service and into the Communion of his Body and Church and therefore this Faith and Repentance justifies in Baptism because those who thus repent of their Sins and believe in Christ are received to Baptism and in Baptism have all their Sins forgiven and are put into a state of Grace and Favour with God. But now though Faith and Repentance and the Vows of Obedience are sufficient to make us the Disciples of Christ and to put us into a state of Justification yet they are not sufficient to save those who are the Disciples of Christ without actual Holiness and Obedience of Life for to be a Disciple of Christ does not signifie meerly to believe in him and to vow obedience to him but to obey him it is reasonable â—nough that upon our Vows of Obedience we should be received into his service but it is not reasonable that we should be rewarded without performing our Vows for it is as ridiculous a thing to think that our repeated sorows for not obeying and our repeated and fruitless resolutions of obeying our Saviour should pass for Obedience as that that Son should be thought to do his Father's will who said I go Sir but went not especially when after our Vow of Baptism we live a very ungodly life and never think it time to repent and to renew our Vows again till we come to die If we consider the difference between what is necessary to make us the Disciples of Christ and what is required of us when we are Disciples we shall see a plain reason why Faith and Repentance as that signifies sorrow for sin and Vows of Obedience will justifie us in Baptism but will not be accepted upon a Death-bed after a life spent in wickedness for when a baptized Christian comes to die he is not then to be made a Disciple of Christ and to be baptized again but to give an account of his life since he has been Christ's Disciple and meer Faith in Christ sorrow for Sin and vows of Obedience without actual Holiness of Life though with the Sacrament of Baptism it will make a Disciple yet it will not pass in a Disciple's account especially when the sum total of his Life is nothing but sin and sorrow and fruitless vows for this is not that holiness of life which Christ requires of his Disciples The ancient Discipline of the Church was a plain proof of this that they thought a great deal more necessary for a baptized Christian than was required to qualifie Men for Baptism In the Apostles days they baptized both Iews and Heathens immediately upon their profession of Faith in Christ and renouncing their former wicked lives but in case they fell into any gross and scandalous sin after Baptism they were cast out of the Communion of the Church and the profession of sorrow and repentance for their sins and the most solemn vows of a new life was not thought sufficient to restore them to the Peace of the Church but they were kept under the severities of Repentance till they had made satisfaction for the Scandal they had given to the Church and given sufficient testimonies of the actual reformation of their Lives and in the Ages succeeding the