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
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
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
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
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
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