men thoroughly convinced of this plain and certain Truth that there is a vast difference between Time and Eternity between a few years and everlasting Ages would we but represent to our selves what thoughts and apprehensions dying persons have of this world how vain and empty a thing it appears to them how like a pageant and a shadow it looks as it passeth away from them methinks none of these things could be a sufficient temptation to any man to forget God and his Soul but notwithstanding all the delights and pleasures of sense we should be strangely intent upon the concernments of another world and almost wholly taken up with the thoughts of that vast Eternity which we are ready to launch into For what is there in this world this waste and howling wilderness this rude and barbarous Country which we are but to pass through which should detain our affections here and take up our thoughts from our everlasting habitation from that better and that heavenly Country where we hope to live and be happy for ever If we settle our affections upon the enjoyments of this present Life so as to be extremely pleas'd and transported with them and to say in our hearts It is good for us to be here if we be excessively griev'd or discontented for the want or loss of them and if we look upon our present state in this world any otherwise than as a preparation and passage to a better life it is a sign that our faith and hope of the happiness of another life is but very weak and faint and that we do not heartily and in good earnest believe what we pretend to do concerning these things For did we stedfastly believe and were thoroughly persuaded of what our Religion so plainly declares to us concerning the unspeakable and endless happiness of good men in another world our affections would sit more loose to this world and our hopes would raise our hearts as much above these present and sensible things as the heavens are high above the earth we should value nothing here below but as it serves for our present support and passage or may be made a means to secure and increase our future felicity 2. The consideration of another Life should quicken our preparation for that blessed state which remains for us in the other world This Life is a state of probation and tryal This world is God's school where immortal spirits clothed with flesh are trained and bred up for eternity And then certainly it is not an indifferent thing and a matter of slight concernment to us how we live and demean our selves in this world whether we indulge our selves in ungodliness and worldly lusts or live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world No it is a matter of infinite moment as much as our souls and all eternity are worth Let us not deceive our selves for as we sowe so shall we reap If we sowe to the flesh we shall of the flesh reap corruption but if we sowe to the spirit we shall of the spirit reap everlasting life Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart The righteous hath hopes in his death Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace But the ungodly are not so whoever hath lived a wicked and vicious life feels strange throws and pangs in his conscience when he comes to be cast upon a sick bed The wicked is like the troubled sea saith the Prophet when it cannot rest full of trouble and confusion especially in a dying hour It is death to such a man to look back upon his life and a hell to him to think of eternity When his guilty and trembling Soul is ready to leave his Body and just stepping into the other world what horrour and amazement do then seise upon him what a rage doth such a man feel in his breast when he seriously considers that he hath been so great a fool as for the false and imperfect pleasure of a few days to make himself miserable for ever 3. Let the consideration of that unspeakable Reward which God hath promised to good men at the Resurrection encourage us to obedience and a holy life We serve a great Prince who is able to promote us to honour a most gracious master who will not let the least service we doe for him pass unrewarded This is the Inference which the Apostle makes from his large discourse of the Doctrine of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. 58. Wherefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast and unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Nothing will make death more welcome to us than a constant course of service and obedience to God Sleep saith Solomon is sweet to the labouring man so after a great diligence and industry in working out our own salvation and as it is said of David serving our generation according to the will of God how pleasant will it be to fall asleep And as an usefull and well-spent life will make our death to be sweet so our resurrection to be glorious Whatever acts of piety we doe to God or of charity to men whatever we lay out upon the poor and afflicted and necessitous will all be considered by God in the day of recompences and most plentifully rewarded to us And surely no consideration ought to be more prevalent to perswade us to alms deeds and charity to the poor than that of a resurrection to another life Besides the promises of this life which are made to works of charity and there is not any grace or vertue whatsoever which hath so many and so great promises of temporal blessings made to it in Scripture as this grace of charity I say besides the promises of this Life the great promise of eternal Life is in Scripture in a more especial manner entail'd upon it Luke 12. 33. Give alms saith our Saviour provide your selves baggs which wax not old a treasure in the heavens that faileth not and c. 16. v. 9. make to your selves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that when ye shall fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations And 1 Tim. 6. 17 18 19. Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded c. that they doe good that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translation renders foundation according to the common use of it seems in this place to have a more peculiar notion and to signifie the security that is given by a pledge or by an instrument or obligation of contract for the performance of Covenants For besides that the phrase of laying up in store or treasuring up
That there is another state after this life wherein men shall be happy or miserable according as they have lived in this world And this doth not onely suppose the immortality of the Soul but forasmuch as the Body is an essential part of man doth by consequence infer the resurrection of the Body because otherwise the man would not be happy or miserable in the other world But I cannot see any sufficient ground to believe that our Saviour intended by this Argument directly and immediately to prove the resurrection of the Body but onely by consequence and as it follows from the admission of a future state wherein men shall be rewarded or punished For that Reason of our Saviour that God is not a God of the dead but of the living if it did directly prove the resurrection of the Body it would prove that the Bodies of Abraham Isaac and Jacob were raised to life again at or before that time when God spake to Moses and called himself the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob But we do not believe this and therefore ought not to suppose that it was the intention of our Saviour directly and immediately to prove the resurrection of the Body but onely as I said before a future state And that this was all our Saviour intended will more plainly appear if we consider what that Errour of the Sadduces was which our Saviour here confutes And Josephus who very well understood the difference of the Sects among the Jews and gives a particular account of them makes not the least mention of any Controversie between the Pharisees and the Sadduces about the resurrection of the Body All that he says is this That the Pharisees hold the immortality of the Soul and that there are Rewards and Punishments in another world But the Sadduces denied all this and that there was any other state after this life And this is the very same account with that which is given of them in the New Testament ver 27. of this Chap. The Sadduces who deny that there is any resurrection The meaning of which is more fully declared Acts 23. 8. The Sadduces say that there is no resurrection neither angel nor spirit but the Pharisees confess both That is the Sadduces denied that there was any other state of men after this life and that there was any such thing as an immortal Spirit either Angels or the Souls of men surviving their Bodies And as Dr. Hammond hath judiciously observed this is the true importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. a future or another state unless in such Texts where the Context does restrain it to the raising again of the Body or where some word that denotes the body as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added to it Secondly The force of this Argument against those with whom our Saviour disputed will further appear if we consider the great veneration which the Jews in general had for the Writings of Moses above any other Books of the Old Testament which they especially the Sadduces looked upon onely as Explications and Comments upon the Law of Moses But they esteemed nothing as a necessary Article of Faith which had not some foundation in the Writings of Moses And this seems to me to be the true Reason why our Saviour chose to confute them out of Moses rather than any other part of the Old Testament And not as many learned men have imagined because the Sadduces did not receive any part of the Old Testament but onely the five Books of Moses so that it was in vain to argue against them out of any other This I know hath been a general opinion grounded I think upon the mistake of a passage in Josephus who says the Sadduces onely received the written Law But if we carefully consider that passage we shall find that Josephus doth not there oppose the Law to the other Books of the Old Testament which were also written but to Oral Tradition For he says expresly that the Sadduces onely received the written Law but the Pharisees over and besides what was written received the Oral which they call Tradition I deny not but that in the later Prophets there are more express Texts for the proof of a future state than any are to be found in the Books of Moses As Daniel 12. 2. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt And indeed it seems very plain that holy men among the Jews towards the expiration of the Legal dispensation had still clearer and more express apprehensions concerning a future state than are to be met with in the Writings of Moses or of any of the Prophets The Law given by Moses did suppose the Immortality of the Souls of men and the expectation of another life after this as Principles of Religion in some degree naturally known but made no new and express Revelation of these things Nor was there any occasion for it the Law of Moses being a Political Law not intended for the Government of mankind but of one particular Nation and therefore was establish'd as Political Laws are upon temporal promises and threatnings promising temporal prosperity to the observation of its precepts and threatning the breach of them with temporal judgments and calamities And this I take to be the true reason why arguments fetch'd from another world are so obscurely insisted upon under that Dispensation not but that another life after this was always suppos'd and was undoubtedly the hope and expectation of good men under the Law but the clear discovery of it was reserv'd for the Times of the Messias And therefore as those Times drew on and the Sun of righteousness was nearer his rising the shadows of the night began to be chased away and mens apprehensions of a future state to clear up so that in the time of the Maccabees good men spake with more confidence and assurance of these things It is likewise to be consider'd that the temporal calamities and sufferings with which the Jews were almost continually harass'd from the time of their Captivity had very much wean'd good men from the consideration of temporal promises and awaken'd their minds to the more serious thoughts of another world It being natural to men when they are destitute of present comfort to support themselves with the expectation of better things for the future and as the Apostle to the Hebrews expresseth it c. 6. v. 18. to fly for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is before them and to imploy their reason to fortifie themselves as well as they can in that persuasion And this I doubt not was the true occasion of those clearer and riper apprehensions of good men concerning a future state in those times of distress and persecution it being very agreeable to the wisedom and goodness of the Divine Providence not to leave his People destitute
a foundation seems to be a very odd jumbling of metaphors this very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 almost necessarily requires this notion as it is used by the same Apostle in his second Epistle to Timothy chap. 2. ver 19. where it is said the foundation of God stands sure having this seal c. a seal being very improper to strengthen a foundation but very fit to confirm a Covenant And then surely it ought to be render'd the Covenant of God remains firm having this seal And so likewise in the foremention'd Text the sense will be much more easie and currant if we render it thus treasuring up or providing for themselves a good security or pledge against the time to come I add pledge because that anciently was the common way of security for things lent besides that the Apostle seems plainly to allude to that passage Tobit 4. 8 9. If thou hast abundance give alms accordingly c. for thou layest up a good treasure for thy self against the day of necessity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for thou treasurest up for thy self a good pledge to which this of the Apostle exactly answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 treasuring up or providing for themselves a good pledge or security c. the sense however is plain that the charity of Alms is one of the best ways of securing our future happiness And yet further to encourage us to abound in works of charity the Scripture tells us that proportionably to the degrees of our charity shall be the degrees of our reward upon this consideration the Apostle exhorts the Corinthians to be liberal in their charity 2 Cor. 9. 6. he that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly but he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully So that whatever we lay out in this kind is to the greatest advantage and upon the best security two considerations which use to be very prevalent with rich men to lay out their money We certainly doe it to the greatest advantage because God will consider the very smallest thing that any of us doe in this kind He that shall give so much as a cup of cold water to a disciple in the name of a disciple shall not lose his reward these last words shall not lose his reward are a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifie much more than they seem to speak viz. that he shall have a very great reward infinitely beyond the value of what he hath done And we doe it likewise upon the best security so Solomon assures us Prov. 19. 17. He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth to the Lord and that which he hath given will he pay him again and we may be confident of our security where God is surety nay he tells us that in this case he looks upon himself as principal and that whatever we doe in ways of mercy and charity to the poor he takes as done to himself So our Lord hath told us Matt. 2. 5. 40. and we shall hear the same from him again out of his own mouth when he shall appear in his Majesty to judge the World Then the King shall answer and say unto them Verily I say unto you inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me And on the other side the Scripture no where passeth a more severe doom upon any sort of persons than upon those who have no bowels of compassion towards their brethren in distress That is a fearfull sentence indeed which the Apostle pronounceth upon such persons Jam. 2. 13. He shall have judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy And this our Saviour represents to us in a most solemn manner in that lively description which he makes of the Judgment of the great Day Matt. 25. 31. c. When the Son of man shall come in his glory and all the holy Angels with him then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory And before him shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats And he shall set the sheep on his right hand but the goats on the left Then shall the King say unto them on the right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world For I was an hungred and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye clothed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came unto me Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels For I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat c. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal And if this be as most certainly it is a true and proper representation of the process of that Day then the great matter of enquiry will be What works of charity and mercy have been done or neglected by us and accordingly a Sentence of eternal happiness or misery will be pass'd upon us I was hungry did ye feed me or did ye not I was naked did ye clothe me or did ye not I was sick and in prison did ye visit me or did ye not Not but that all the good or evil of our lives in what kind soever shall then be brought to account But that our Saviour did chuse to instance particularly and onely in things of this nature should methinks make a mighty impression upon us and be a powerfull consideration to oblige us to have a very peculiar regard to works of mercy and charity and to make sure to abound in this Grace that when we shall appear before the great Judge of the World we may find that mercy from Him which we have shew'd to others and which we shall all undoubtedly stand in need of in that Day And among all our acts of charity those which are done upon least probability and foresight of their meeting with any recompense in this world either by way of real requital or of fame and reputation as they are of all other most acceptable to God so they will certainly have the most ample reward in another world So our Lord hath assur'd us and accordingly adviseth us Luke 14. 12 13 14. When thou makest a feast invite not the rich because they will recompense thee again but call the poor the maimed the lame and the blind for they cannot recompense thee but thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just If we be Religious for worldly ends and serve God and doe good to men onely in contemplation of some temporal advantage we take up with present payment and cut our selves short of our future reward of such saith our Lord verily I say unto you they have their reward they are their own security and