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
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
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
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