For he that hath Heaven for his Haven must be infinitely peevish if he quarrels at a rough Sea and doth nor bless the Storms and Winds that are driving him thither And thus I have proved to you at large that the Commands of God are not grievous and that both because they are easie in their own Nature and are made much more easie by our Blessed Lord and Saviour But after all that hath been said I do foresee a material Objection that will be made against this Discourse and that is this That it contradicts the universal Experience of Mankind For do not the Generality of those Men that have attempted a religious Life find by Experience a great deal of difficulty Are they not forced to strive and wrastle with themselves and to do the greatest Violence to their own Inclinations Are they not forced to keep themselves under a severe Discipline to pray earnestly and watch diligently to prevent the Surprises and Incursions of those Temptations that continually way-lay them wheresoever they are and whatsoever they are about And do they not many times find the difficulties so great as that they are quite beaten off and utterly disheartned by them All this I confess is very true and may very well be so without any Prejudice to the Argument in hand for we have not been discoursing of what Religion may accidentally be but of what it really is in it self The Light in it self is pleasant to the Eye but yet it may accidentally be grievous if the Eye be sore or weak and not able to endure its Splendor And so Religion though in its self extremely easie yet it may and often doth become accidentally difficult to us by Reason of those sinful Prejudices against it which we do too often contract in the Course of a sinful Life But 't is an unreasonable Thing for Men to measure the Easiness of God's Laws not by their own intrinsick Nature but by the Reluctancy and Opposition which they find in their own Hearts against them For to a Man in a Fever every Thing is bitter but yet the Bitterness is not in the Honey he tasts but in the Gall that overflows his own Palate And so to a vicious Man every Virtue is a Burthen but the Burthensomness is not so much in the Virtue as in his own Repugnancy to bear it For I have already proved at large that Religion is every way agreeable to humane Nature and therefore there can be no other Reason why it should not agree with us unless it be that we disagree with our selves We spoil our own Natures and do degenerate from the humane Nature into the brutal or diabolical and what wonder is it that the Religion of a Man should be a Burthen to the Nature of a Beast or a Devil But if we would take but a little Pains to retrieve our selves and weed out those unnatural Habits with which our Nature is over-grown we should find that our Religion and That would very well accord and then that which is our Burthen would become our Recreation I confess before this can be accomplished we must take a great deal of Pains with our selves we must watch and pray and strive and contend and undergo the severe Discipline of a sorrowful Repentance if ever we mean to recover our Natures again But for God's sake consider Sirs there is now no Remedy for this and you may thank your selves for it for you must undergo great Difficulties take which side you please If you resolve to continue as you are you must be most wretched Slaves to your own Lusts you must tamely submit to all their tyrannical Commands and run and go on every Errand they send you and though they countermand each other and one sends you this Way and another the quite contrary though Sloth pulls you back and Ambition thrusts you forwards and Covetousness bids you save and Sensuality bids you spend though Pride bids you strut and Flattery bids you cringe and there is as great a Confusion in their Wills and Commands as there was in the Language of the Brick-layers of Babel and though in such a Huddle of Inconsistencies you are frequently at your Wits end and know not what to do yet you must be contented to endure the Hurry and if you cannot do all at once you must do what you can and when you have done so 't is a thousand to one but there will be as many of your Lusts dissatisfied as satisfied And in the mean time while you are thus hurried about in the Crowd of your own sinful Desires your wretched Conscience will ever and anon be alarming you with its ill-boding Horrors and griping and twinging you with many an uneasie Reflection Thus like miserable Gally-Slaves you must tug at the Oar work against Wind and Tyde and row through the Storms and Tempests of your own Conscience and all this to run your selves upon a Rock and invade your own Damnation So that considering all I dare say the Toil of being wicked is much more insupportable than that of a holy Life and which is sad to consider it hath no other Issue but eternal Ruin for the wages of Sin saith the Apostle is death Rom. vi 23 And methinks it should be very uncomfortable for a Man to work so hard for nothing but Misery and even to earn his Damnation with the sweat of his Brows especially considering that the Toil and Drudgery of a sinful Life hath no End For though Custom and Habit renders all other Things easie yet by accustoming our selves to do Evil we add to our Toil and render those cruel Taskmasters our Lusts more tyrannical and imposing for still the more we gratify them the more craving they will be and the more impatient of denyal and so by working for them we shall but increase our own Toil and still acquire new Degrees of Labour and Drudgery But as for the main Difficulty of Religion it chiefly lies in the Entry to it for there we must shake hands with all our darling Lusts and bid them adieu for ever and to persuade our selves throughly to this is the main Difficulty of all for then to be sure they will cling fastest about us and use their utmost Oratory to stagger our Resolution and the old Love we have born them and the dear Remembrance of the Pleasures which they have administred to us will make our Hearts relent and our Bowels yearn towards them But if with all those mighty Arguments wherewith our Religion and our Reason furnishes us and all those divine Assistances which we are encouraged to ask and if we do are assured to obtain we can but conquer our Reluctancies and heartily persuade our selves to part with them this is the sharpest Brunt in all our spiritual Warfare for now if we do but keep the ground that we have gotten and maintain our Resolution against the Temptations that assault it our Lusts will every day grow weaker and
are let alone to enjoy our Sins is a Contradiction and so not the Object of any Power no not of Omnipotence it self For Sin it self is the greatest Misery that human Nature is liable to 't is this that convulses all its Faculties that racks and stretches them out of Joint and distorts them into an unnatural Figure and Position 't is this that makes us our own Reverse transposes our Head with our Feet and makes our Reason truckle to our Sense our intellectual Faculties that were made to govern to serve those brutish Passions and Appetites which Nature designed to be their Vassals which is such a barbarous Violence to the very Frame and Constitution of our Nature as will whensoever we recover out of our lethargick Stupidity be as sensibly dolorous to our Souls as Racks or Wheels or Catasta's to our Bodies So that for God to save us from Misery whilst he suffers us to continue in our Sins is altogether as impossible as it is to save us from burning whilst he suffers us to continue weltring in the Flames of Fire and to make us well in Sickness or easie in Diseases are not more repugnant to the Nature of Things than 't is to make us happy in our Sins and yet this is the only Matter we complain of that God will not allow us a free Dispensation to be wicked in that which is the Condition of our Salvation O blessed God! How is it possible thou shouldst ever please such froward peevish and ungrateful Creatures who will never be satisfied unless thou performest Impossibilities and makest Contradictions to be true for their sakes For shame therefore let us no longer complain that the Condition of our Salvation is too hard and rigorous but since God hath been pleased to condescend so low to us as to indulge us whatsoever is consistent with our Salvation let us admire and adore his Goodness and with our Souls inflamed with Love and Gratitude to him chearfully undertake what he hath so mercifully enjoyned us JOHN III. 16 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life I Am now upon the latter Part of this Text that whosoever believeth in him c. In which there are two great Instances of God's Goodness to us First his imposing upon us such a gentle and merciful Condition that whosoever believeth in him Secondly his proposing to us so vast a Reward upon the Performance of it should not perish but have everlasting Life The first of these I have handled already and now I proceed to the second viz. the vast Reward he hath proposed to us upon the Performance of this merciful Condition And in this you have First the negative Part of it that whosoever believeth in him might not perish Secondly the positive One but have everlasting Life I. I begin with the first of these that whosoever believeth in him might not perish In prosecution of which Argument I shall do these three Things 1. Shew you what is meant by perishing here 2. By what Right we were concerned in and obliged to it 3. What unspeakable Goodness God hath discovered to us in freeing and absolving us from this Obligation 1. What is meant by perishing here or not perishing That whosoever believeth in him should not perish that is that whosoever believes in him might be pardoned or absolved from the obligation of perishing for ever to which his Sins have rendred him justly liable For that by this Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he should not perish or be destroyed is not meant the Annihilation or Destruction of our Beings as the Socinians and some others imagin is evident by its being opposed to everlasting Life which as I shall shew you hereafter doth not denote our mere Continuance in Life and Being for ever but our Continuance in a most blissful and happy Life for ever and consequently the Destruction that is here opposed to it must not denote our eternal Discontinuance to be and live but our living most wretchedly and miserably for ever And indeed wheresoever Death or Destruction is spoken of in Opposition to eternal Life this is apparently the Sense of it So Rom. vi 23 The wages of Sin is death but the Gift of God is eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now that by Death here is understood a State of endless Misery and Suffering in Opposition to that State of endless Happiness which eternal Life implies is evident because he cannot mean the first Death which consists in the Separation of the Soul from the Body for though this were originally the Wages of Sin yet in it self it is not so now but the necessary Condition of our Nature for whether we Sin or no we must undergo it being obliged to it by the irreversible Decree of our Maker But the Death here spoken of is the Effect of our own personal Sin without which we are not liable to it as you may plainly see v. 21. What fruit had ye then in those things i. e. those Sins whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things or Sins is Death Wherefore since it cannot be meant of the first it must be meant of the second Death which St. John makes mention of Rev. 2.11 He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second Death And what that is the same Author tells you Rev. 20.14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire This is the second Death that is this Lake of Fire or the Torments and Miseries which condemned Sinners endure in it is the second Death for so he explains himself v. 10. And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone where the Beast and the false Prophet are and shall be tormented Day and Night for ever and ever And this is that Death which is opposed to the immortal Rewards of the Blessed as you may see Rev. 21.7 8. He that overcometh shall inherit all things that is all those immortal Recompences which God has prepared for virtuous Souls But the fearful and unbelieving c. shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstrone Which is the second Death And as Death when opposed to eternal Life denotes a State of endless and continued Misery so doth Destruction also So Mat. 7.13 14. Broad is the way that leadeth to Destruction Narrow is the way which leadeth unto Life By the later of which it is granted on all hands he means Life eternal and that by Destruction he means a State of endless Misery is evident from Matth. 10.28 but fear him which is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell which according to St. John's Exposition Rev. 20.10 is to torment them Day and Night for ever and ever And this destroying in Hell our Saviour elsewhere expresses by casting into Hell into the fire that never shall be quenched where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched which is as plain
Obedience to Superiors and Contempt of the World of Patience and Courage and Meekness and Resignation to the Will of God that so by his Example we might be excited to the Exercise of all those passive Virtues which are not only most glorious but most difficult to human Nature and that by beholding how mean and yet how good he was we might all become more ambitious of being good than great in the World Now what an amazing Instance of God's Goodness is this that meerly for our sakes and to promote our Happiness he should depress his own Son into such a miserable Condition that he who was in the Form of God who thought it no Robbery to be equal with God should by the Appointment of his own Father to whom he was so infinitely dear make himself of no Reputation take on him the Form of a Servant become a Man of sorrows and acquaint himself with Griefs and all this to put himself into a better Capacity of doing good to the World Good God! When I consider with my self that once there was a Time when thou didst send thy blessed Son from Heaven to assume my Nature that therein he dwelt upon this Earth and conversed with such poor Mortals as my self that he suffered himself to be despised and persecuted and by thy own Appointment wandred about like a poor Wretch naked and destitute of all those Comforts which I abundantly enjoy and all this that he might the more effectually do good to a World of ill-natured Sinners methinks this wonderous Prodigy of Love not only puzles my Conceit but outreaches my Wonder and Admiration And though it be a Love that exceeds my largest Thoughts such as I have infinite Cause to rejoyce in but could never have had the Impudence to expect yet while I stand gazing on it methinks I am like one that is looking down from a stupendous Precipice whose Height fills me with a trembling Horror and even oversets my Reason 6 thly And lastly The Greatness of God's Love and Goodness towards us appears also in this that he gave his only begotten Son to be a Sacrifice for the Sins of miserable Sinners and this is plainly implied in that Expression he gave his only begotten Son For in the two Verses foregoing the Text our Saviour foretells his own Death for as Moses saith he lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal Life and then it immediately follows for God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that is he gave him to be lifted up upon the Cross even as the Serpent was lifted up by Moses in the Wilderness that so by his precious Death and Sacrifice he might make an Atonement for the Sins of the World And accordingly he is said to be delivered up for our offences Rom. iv 25 even as the Sacrifice was delivered up at the Door of the Tabernacle to propitiate God for the Sins of the Offerer For to compleat the propitiatory Sacrifices under the Law three Things were requisite first the offering of it at the Door of the Tabernacle the slaying of it and the presenting of its Blood either within the Holy of Holies or elsewhere all which were found in the Sacrifice of our blessed Saviour First he offered himself to God as a willing Victim for the Sins of the World Hence Joh. xvii 19 for this cause saith he do I sanctify my self that is offer up my self as a Sacrifice to thee for so in Levit. xxii 2 3. and sundry other places to hallow or sanctify any Thing to the Lord denotes the offering it to him in Sacrifice And accordingly we find that that Prayer by which Christ consecrated himself to the Lord Joh. xvii was much like that by which the High Priest did consecrate his Victims before the Altar on the great day of Expiation for as he before he slew the Sacrifice did first commend himself and his own Family then the Family of Aaron and the whole Congregation to the Lord so our Saviour in this excellent Prayer whereby he sanctified himself to his Father a Sacrifice for the Sins of the World first commended himself to him then his Apostles then all those who should afterwards believe in his Name which having done he went forth presently to the Place where he was apprehended and carried to Judgment and condemned to Death Then as a propitiatory Sacrifice he was slain for our sins for so St. Peter tells us Ephes. ii 24 he bore our Sins in his own Body on the Tree that is that natural Evil of a most shameful and painful Death was inflicted on him for our Sins that so he might make an Expiation for them and free us from the Guilt and Punishment that was due to them Hence in that Prophecy of him Isa. liii we often meet with such Expressions as these surely he hath born our Griefs and carried our Sorrows he was Wounded for our Transgressions he was Bruised for our Iniquities The chastisement of our Peace was upon him and with his Stripes we are Healed The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all For the transgression of my people was he stricken Thou shalt make his Soul an offering for Sin and he shall bear their Iniquities He was numbered with the Transgressors and he bare the sin of Many and made intercession for the Transgressors All which Expressions do plainly imply that what he suffered he suffered for our Sins as a Sacrifice substituted in the Room of us who were the Offenders that so he might make Expiation for us and obtain our Pardon from his Father And accordingly in the New Testament he is said to be made a Curse for us to be our Ransom and Propitiation to redeem and reconcile us and obtain the Remission of our Sins by his Blood to die for us and for our Sins and to be our Propitiation all which Expressions being applyed to the Sacrifices of Atonement under the Law and from them derived upon our Saviour do plainly denote him to be a Sacrifice of Atonement for the Sins of the World And then lastly there is the presenting of his Blood for us in Heaven and in the Virtue thereof his interceeding for us with his Father And hence the Blood of Christ as it is now presented in Heaven is called the blood of Sprinkling which speaketh better things than that of Abel Heb. xii 24 In which he plainly alludes to the High Priest's sprinkling of the Blood of the Sacrifice in the Holy of Holies which was a Type of Christs presenting his Blood for us in Heaven as you may see Heb. ix 7 compared with the 11th and 12th Verses Verse 7th he tells us that the High Priest entered not into the Holy of Holies without blood But then Verse 12th it is said that Christ with his own blood entred in once into the holy
a Description of an endless State of Misery as Words can express for how is it possible that Annihilation should signify either a Fire that never goes out or a Worm that never dies So also 2 Thess. 1.9 who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord meaning the wicked Persecuters at Christ's coming to Judgment Now that by that everlasting Destruction he means a State of endless Suffering and Torment is evident if we consider the Description which our Saviour gives of that Punishment to which the Wicked shall be sentenced at the last Day Go ye cursed saith he into everlasting Fire Matth. 25.41 And lest we should fancy that 't is the Fire only that is eternal but not the Punishment v. 46. of that Chap. And these saith he shall go away into everlasting Punishment but the Righteous into Life eternal And that they do actually exist in this Fire and continue in the Torment of it is evident by those Actions that are therein attributed to them such as weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth Matth. 13.42 50 which Actions are plain Indications not only of their subsisting in this everlasting Fire but of the extream Horror and Anguish they shall therein endure And as this Fire is said to be everlasting so the Everlastingness of it is described so as to exclude all Limits and prescind from all Determinations For Fire must be extinguished e're it can cease to burn and therefore that which cannot be extinguished can never end but such is that Fire whereunto the Wicked are condemned at the Day of Judgment so Matth. 3.12 whose fan is in his hand but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable Fire And that the Sufferers shall be no more extinguished than the Fire that burns them is evident from Rev. 14.11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever And they have no rest day nor night And how can the smoke of this Fire be said to be the smoke of their torment ascending up for ever and ever unless they exist in it for ever and ever especially considering what follows immediately after they have no rest day nor night Which Expression is the same with that by which the same Author signifies the eternal Happiness of good Men so Rev. 4.8 They rest not day and night saying holy holy holy and Rev. 7.15 The are before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple And if Day and Night here when applied to the State of Heaven denotes the continued blisful Employment of happy Souls there forever then for the same Reason when 't is applied to the State of Hell it must denote the continued Miseries of the Damned there forever Well then if the Fire of Hell be everlasting yea if it be so absolutely everlasting as that it is unquenchable and if those that are cast into it shall be tormented for ever and ever all which the Scripture doth directly teach then it necessarily follows that the Wicked must subsist in their Miseries for ever and be co-eternal with the Flames that torment them The Reason therefore why that future Punishment to which our Sins do consign and oblige us is called by the Name of Destruction Perdition and Death is not because it puts a final Period either to our Being or Subsistence as some fondly Dream but because it forever separates and disjoyns us from God who is the better and the nobler Life of Man and from all those sweet Perceptions of Comfort and Pleasure of which Life is the Principle And there is no Language Phrases or Expressions can be supposed to patronize a contrary Opinion since the same Scriptures which say that the Wicked shall be destroyed and perish and die say also that they shall be tormented with never-dying Pains as they plainly and frequently do This I have the longer insisted upon because it is a very dangerous Thing for Men to be deceived in this Matter not to know the worst of the Consequents of their own Follies but to expect an easier and a shorter Hell than ever they are like to find And so I have done with the first Thing proposed viz. what is here meant by perishing and proved to you at large that hereby is meant living miserably forever 2 dly I proceed now to the next Thing proposed viz. how we came to be concerned in and obliged to this dreadful Penalty To which I answer that originally we were hereunto obliged by the Law of our Nature for Man being naturally an immortal Creature must necessarily be forever liable to the natural Effects of his own Actions and therefore since Misery is the natural Effect of sinful Actions if we continue Sinners forever we must necessarily continue miserable forever And if God should have inflicted no other Miseries upon wicked Souls when they are separated from their Bodies than what are necessarily consequent to their own Wickedness these would be an Hell of insufferable Torment to them So that from the very Immortality of our Natures we are capable of everlasting Perseverance in Sin and from our everlasting Perseverance in Sin we are fatally damned to evelasting Misery And as by the Law of our Natures we are thus bound over to eternal Punishment so are we also by the positive Sentence and Determination of God who hath not only obliged us to obey him under the Penalty of enduring forever the Miseries that are naturally appendent to our Sins but hath added thereunto all those positive Torments which the Lake of Fire and Brimstone and the Horrors of outer Darkness do imply For so in his Word he hath plainly declared to us that if after he hath tryed us to the utmost we will not be reclaimed but are so desperate as to proceed in our Wickedness maugre all the Arts and Methods he can use to reduce us he will at last shut us up in a State of endless and irreversible Torment And this is no more than what he might very justly and rightfully do for he being the Supream Law-giver of the World hath an immutable Right to enforce his Laws with such Penalties as are sufficient to secure them from being violated by his Subjects for otherwise he would be defective in his Power of Legislation for how could he have sufficient Power to make Laws if he had not Right to enforce them with sufficient Penalties But we that are his Subjects being so apt to offend and so extreamly liable to Temptations thereunto no less Penalty could be sufficient to secure our Obedience than that which is eternal for which Reason he hath enforced his Laws with the Threatning of it And if God thought no less than the Threatning of eternal Punishment necessary to deter Men from their Sins what less than the Execution of that Threat can be sufficient to render them Examples of his Severity against it For Threats without Execution are but mere Scare-crows and it is highly unreasonable for us
so as to receive you into Grace and Favour But when by sending his own Son to die for us he had given us so plain a Proof of the Sincerity of his Affection towards us with what face can we suspect his Kindness For is it likely that he who was so good as to give his Son for us whilst we were in Impenitence should be so implacable as to deny his Love to us upon our Repentance and Amendment Was it not a much higher Act of Love to give his Son for Sinners than to receive poor prostrate Penitents into Favour He then who was so free to do the former we might well imagin would be much more free to do the latter Or lastly Dare we plead for our selves that considering the Anxiousness and Jealousy of guilty Minds God had not given us such Security of his Readiness to pardon and be reconciled to us as was requisite to dispel all those Fears and Doubts by which we were discouraged from Repentance and Amendment But how weak and groundless this Plea is will soon appear to all the World when it shall be considered what an effectual Course God took to obviate all our Doubts and Fears by pardoning us in our own Method namely upon the Motive of a Sacrifice and Intercession of a Mediator especially of such a Sacrifice and Mediator as his own Son For let him be never so severe and stern yet 't is impossible he should be inexorable to the vocal Blood and importunate Intercessions of that dear Person whom he loves above all the World And now when God had so contrived the Method of his pardoning us as to take from us all Occasion either of presuming upon his Mercy whilst we continue impenitent when he hath taken such an effectual Course to raise both our Hopes and Fears which are the Springs of our Action to their highest Pitch and Capacity and given us the greatest Certainty that the Nature of the Thing will bear that he will punish us for ever if we Sin on and pardon and receive us into Favour if now at last we will repent and return what can we say for our selves if in Despite of all this we will run from Mercy whilst its Arms are open to embrace us and leap into Hell with our Eyes open and we see it gaping ready to devour us JOHN III. 16 But have everlasting Life I Am now upon the last Branch of the Text which is to shew you the great Goodness of God to us in promising to us such a vast Reward upon our performing such an easie Condition as our believing in Jesus Christ in which Reward there is first the privative Part of it or the Misery it rescues us from that whosoever believeth in him should not perish Secondly the positive or the Happiness it instates us in but have everlasting Life In the management of which I shall do these two Things 1. Shew you why this Reward is termed Everlasting Life 2. How unspeakably good God hath been to us in proposing to us such a vast Reward 1. Why this Reward is stiled by the Name of Everlasting Life For it is very usual with Scripture to express all the Blessings it promises to Men by the Name of Life for thus by Life the Old Testament very frequently expresses those temporal Blessings which are therein promised and proposed So Deut. xxx 15 See I have set before thee this day Life and Good and Death and Evil in which he plainly refers to those temporal Blessings and Curses which he had proposed to and denounced against them Chap. xxviii for so v. 19 of this Chapter he explains himself I call Heaven and Earth to record this day against you that I have set before you Life and Death Blessing and Cursing Therefore chuse Life that both Thou and thy Seed may live So Levit. xviii 5 Ye shall keep my Statutes and my Judgments Which if a Man do he shall live in them that is he shall enjoy all those temporal Blessings which I have therein promised For so Ezek. xx 21 their living in them is opposed to his pouring out temporal Judgments upon them And hence the Statutes of the Mosaic Law are called the statutes of Life in which whosoever walks shall surely Live and not Die Ezek. xxxiii 15 And as these temporal Blessings promised in the Old Testament are commonly expressed by Life so those eternal Blessings promised in the New Testament are very frequently expressed by Life also So Mat. xviii 8 It is better for thee to enter into Life halt or maimed rather than having two Hands or two Feet to be cast into everlasting Fire So also Mat. xix 17 If thou wilt enter into Life keep the Commandments And Joh. iii. 36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting Life And he that believeth not the Son shall not see Life but the wrath of God abideth on him And because the Blessings which the Gospel proposes are not temporal but eternal therefore that Life by which they are expressed is stiled eternal everlasting and immortal For so 2 Tim. i. 10 We find Life and Immortality joyned together and Rom. vi 22 Ye have your fruit unto Holiness and the end everlasting Life and Vers. 23. The gift of God is eternal Life Now that it is not called eternal Life merely as it is a State of endless Being and Existence is evident because Being and Existence are indifferent Things abstracted from all sense of Happiness and Misery but eternal Life is proposed to us as a Thing that is infinitely desirable in self as being the Crown and Reward of all our Obedience for which Reason it is called the crown of Life Jam. i. 12 And therefore the Reason why the everlasting Blessings of the Gospel are expressed by Life are First Because of the inestimable Worth and Value of Life Secondly Because Life is the Root of all our Sense of Pleasure and Happiness Thirdly Because it is the Principle of all our Activity 1. The everlasting Blessings of the Gospel are called Life because Life is the most inestimably precious of all the Blessings we enjoy For without Life there is nothing can be a real Blessing to us nothing that we can tast relish or enjoy And this the Devil knew well enough when he pronounced so confidently Skin for Skin yea all that a Man hath will he give for his Life Job ii 4 Now it is usual with Scripture to describe the Blessings of the future State by Things that are of the greatest Value among Men by Riches and Treasure by a Crown and a Kingdom by a Paradise or a Garden of Pleasure but as if all these were too faint and dim to represent the true Value of that blessed State it is stiled Life also which is much more valuable than either yea than all those Things together And hence the Apostle calls it a more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. iv 17 2. It is called Life
because Life is the Root of all our Sense of Pleasure and Happiness For without Life we are nothing else but a Lump of stupid and insensible Flesh incapable of perceiving either Pleasure or Pain So that all Sensation being founded in Life and all Pleasure a sweet and grateful Sensation by a very easie Figure the natural Effect and Operation of Life is expressed by Life And indeed all the Advantage of living consists in living in a Sense of Pleasure and therefore it hath been very much disputed among Philosophers whether this temporary State of ours in which there is so great an Intermixture of Pain with Pleasure and Misery with Happiness doth not better deserve the Name of Death than Life and those of them who thought it more liable to Misery than Happiness affirmed it to be a State of Death and strictly maintained this Paradox that at our Birth we die into a worse State than Non-existence and at our Death are born into a true and proper State of Life But they who counted our present Life to be intermixt with more Pleasure than Misery esteemed our present Existence a Priviledge deserving the Name of Life which is an Argument that both placed all the Priviledge of living in those pleasant Perceptions that are founded in it And thus also according to the Scripture Philosophy to live as it imports Advantage to us is to live in a State of Joy and Pleasure so Psal. xxii 26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied They shall praise the Lord that seek him your Heart shall live for ever that is you shall so abound with Matter of Joy and Praise that your Hearts shall be satisfied and contented for ever So Joh. xiv 19 Because I live ye shall live also that is because I rise from the Dead and live for ever ye shall rejoyce and be glad So also 1 Thes. iii. 8 For now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord that is we rejoyce in your Constancy and Perseverance for so it follows immediately after For what thanks can we render to God again for you for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before God How properly therefore may the future State be expressed by Life since 't is the proper Scene of Happiness where Joy and Pleasure doth for ever abound where there is an inexhaustible Spring of pure unmingled Delights issuing forth in Rivers of Pleasure from God's right Hand for ever So that if there be any Thing worthy of the Name of Life it is the blisful State of those happy Souls above who live in the continued Sense of all those unspeakable Joys and Comforts that an everlasting Heaven imports 3 dly And lastly it is called Life because Life is the Principle of all Activity 'T is this that inlivens all our Instruments of Action and communicates Motion to all our Faculties and Powers And hence the State of Heaven may well be called the State of Life because 't is a State of the highest Activity wherein all our Faculties act with unspeakable Vigour are freed from all that Weight of Sin and Matter that here do continually clog and incumber them and entertained with such agreeable Objects as do perpetually imploy and exercise them to the utmost of their Strength and Activity Where infinite Truth and infinite Goodness being always in our View and Prospect will continually draw forth the utmost Force of our Vnderstandings Wills and Affections in the most rapturous Contemplation Fruition and Embracements of that all-glorious Object in which we behold them So that we shall not only Act suitably to the Genius of our rational Natures but in every Act shall exert our utmost Activity and know and love and rejoyce and delight as much as ever we are able Wherefore since in that blessed State we shall be all Life and Spirit and Wing since all our rational Faculties shall be most incessantly and vigorously imployed about the most agreeable and consentaneous Objects we being converted as it were into pure Acts of Knowledge and Love and Joy and Satisfaction our State and Condition may be very well expressed by Life which is a most vigorous Principle of Activity So that as Life is the most inestimable Jewel we have as it is the Root of all our Sense of Pleasure and the Principle of all our Activity it doth most properly express the infinite Value Pleasure and Activity of that blisful State which God hath prepared to reward our Obedience And so I have done with the First Thing proposed which was to shew you for what Reason the eternal Rewards of the Blessed are so frequently expressed by everlasting Life 2. I proceed now to shew you in the second Place how unspeakably good God hath been to us in proposing such a vast Reward upon the Performance of such an easie Condition In the Management of which I shall first discourse of this Reward absolutely and shew you how great it is in it self Secondly comparatively and shew you how great it is in Respect of the Condition upon which it is promised 1. We will consider it absolutely how great it is in its self And here I do not pretend to give you a perfect Map of all the Beatitudes of that heavenly State for that is a Talk fit only for an Angel or a glorified Spirit all I aim at is to give you such an imperfect Account of it as God hath thought fit to impart to Mortals in the Scripture which though it fall infinitely short of the Thing it self yet is doubtless the best and utmost that our narrow Capacities can bear In short therefore concerning this blessed State God hath revealed to us that it includes these six Things 1. A perfect Freedom from Evil and Misery 2. A most intimate Enjoyment of himself 3 A most endearing Fruition of our glorified Saviour 4. A most delightful Conversation with Angels and glorified Spirits 5. The infinite Glory and Delightfulness of the Place wherein all these Felicities are to be enjoyed 6. The endless Duration of this most blessed and happy State 1. Everlasting Life includes a most perfect Freedom from Evil and Misery For so we find the State of the Blessed in Heaven described that they hunger no more neither thirst any more that the Sun lights not on them nor any heat that is that they are no longer liable to the scorching Heats of Persecution but that God hath wiped away all tears from their Eyes Rev. vii 16.17 And hence also Heaven is called a State of Rest Heb. iv 9 11. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest Which denotes this State to be a perfect Sabbath and Jubile of Redemption from all Evil and Misery For as soon as the Souls of good Men depart out of this corporeal State in which they now live they are immediatly released from all those bodily Passions of Hunger and Thirst and Pain and Diseases whereunto they
the most dismal Place into a Paradise and to create a Heaven in the darkest Dungeon of Hell yet such hath been the Goodness of God that he hath prepared a Place proportionably glorious to that blessed State which according to the Sciripture Account is the highest Heaven or the upper and purer Tracts of the Aether For so our Saviour tells the penitent Thief to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luk. xxiii 43 and where this Paradise is St. Paul informs us 2 Cor. xii for Vers. 2. he tells us of his being caught up to the third Heaven which in the 4th Vers. he calls Paradise where he heard unspeakable Words Now that by the Third Heaven he means the uppermost viz. that Heaven of Heavens which is the Throne of God's most glorious Residence where Jesus sits at his right Hand among the holy Miriads of Angels and glorious Spirits is evident from this because according to the Jewish Philosophy to which he here alludes Heaven was divided into three Regions viz. the Cloud-bearing Star-bearing and Angel-bearing Region the last of which they called the Third Heaven in which they placed the Throne of the Divine Majesty And that by Paradise he means the same Place is as evident because by this Name the Jews in whose Language he speaks were wont to call it the Third Heaven or Angel-bearing Region And hence Rab. Menachem on Leviticus tells us it is apparent that the Reward of our Obedience is not to be enjoyed in this Life Verum post dissolutionem Justus adipiscitur Regnum quod dicitur Paradisus fruiturque conspectu divino i. e. but after Death the Just shall obtain that Kingdom which is called Paradise and there enjoy the beatifical Vision And 't is very usual for them to express the Blessings of the future Life by enjoying the Delights of Paradise and therefore is this heavenly Region of Angels called by the Name of Paradise in Allusion to the earthly Paradise of Eden denoting to us that as that was the Garden of this lower World which of all other Places did most abound with Pleasures and Delights so this is the Paradise of the whole Creation the most fruitful and delightful Region within all this boundless Space of the World Nor indeed can it be imagined to be otherwise it being the Imperial Court which the great Monarch of the World hath chosen for his special Residence and which he hath prepared to receive and lodge the glorified humane Nature of his own eternal Son and to entertain his Friends and Favourites for ever For if these Out-Rooms of the World are so royal and magnificent how infinitely splendid must we needs imagin the Presence-Chamber of the great King to be the Glory of whose Presence will render it more lightsome and illustrious than the united Beams of ten thousand Suns And therefore though the Scripture hath nowhere given us an exact Description of this glorious Place because indeed no humane Language can describe it yet since God hath chosen it for the everlasting Theater of Bliss and Happiness we may reasonably conclude that he hath most exquisitely furnished it with all Accomodations requisite for a most happy and blisful Life and that the House is every way suitable to the Entertainment Whensoever therefore a pure and vertuous Soul gets free from this Cage of Flesh away it flies under the Conduct and Protection of Angels through the Air and Aether beyond the Firmament of Stars and never stops till it is arrived to those blessed Abodes where God and Jesus Saints and Angels dwell where being come with what unspeakable Delight will it contemplate that Scene of Things When all of a suddain it shall see it self surrounded with an infinite Splendor and Brightness so that which way soever it casts its Eyes it is entertained with new Objects of Wonder and Delight then shall it say as the Queen of Sheba did of Solomon's Court alas How faint and dim how short and imperfect were all humane Conceits and Descriptions of this blessed Place For though I have heard great and mighty Things of it yet now I find that not one Half of its real Glory and Magnificence hath ever been reported to me 6 thly And lastly Everlasting Life includes the endless Duration of this most blessed and happy State Thus Joh. vi 27 he calls his Doctrine the meat which endureth unto everlasting Life which the Son of Man shall give unto you and Vers. 40. he tells them that this was the will of his Father that every one that believeth on him might have everlasting Life and Vers. 47. Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me hath everlasting Life and Vers. 51 54 58. he promises them that upon their believing in him they should live for ever But because Everlasting Life and For ever doth in Scripture sometimes signify a long but not an endless Duration therefore he hath taken Care to express this Article in such Words as must necessarily denote an endless Duration of Bliss for he not only tells them Chap. vi 50 that they who believed his Doctrine should not die but that whosoever liveth and believeth in him shall never die Joh. xi 26 yea and not only so but that they should never see death Joh. viii 51 that is should never come within Ken or Prospect of it Nay and Luk. xx 36 he tells them neither can they die any more for they are equal to the Angels If then our future Life be so everlasting as that it neither can nor shall be terminated by Death it must necessarily be a Life without End whose Duration is parallel to Eternity Now what a mighty Addition must this needs make to the Joys of the Blessed to consider that they are such as shall never expire when the Soul shall reflect upon her happy State and think thus with her self O blessed for ever be a good God! I am as happy now as ever my Heart can hold every Part of me is so thronged with Joy that I have no room for any more and that which compleats and crowns them all is that they shall be renewed to all Eternity and Millions of Millions of Ages hence be as far from a period as they were the first moment wherein I enjoyed them For our Lives and our Happiness shall be co-eternal to one another our God shall live for ever and we shall live for ever to enjoy him and in the Enjoyment of such an infinite Good we need not doubt to find Variety enough still to renew our Joys and to keep them fresh and flourishing for ever For as we shall always know God so we shall always know him more and more and every new Beauty that infinite Object discovers to us will kindle a new Flame of Love and that a new Rapture of Joy and that a new Desire of knowing and discovering more and so for ever round again there will be knowing and loving and rejoycing more and more to all