what that was he expresseth more particularly c. 26. v. 6 7 And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our Fathers unto which promise our twelve Tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come By the promise made of God unto the Fathers he means some promise made by God to Abraham Isaac and Jacob for so S. Luke more than once in his History of the Acts explains this phrase of the God of their Fathers Acts 3.13 The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob the God of our Fathers and c. 7. v. 32. I am the God thy Fathers the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now what was the great and famous Promise which God made to Abraham Isaac and Jacob was it not this of being their God So that it was this very Promise upon which S. Paul tells us the Jews grounded their hope of a future state because they understood it necessarily to signifie some blessing and happiness beyond this life And now having I hope sufficiently clear'd this matter I shall make some improvement of this Doctrine of a future state and that to these three purposes 1. To raise our minds above this world and the enjoyments of this present life Were but men thorougly 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 those 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 off 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 perswaded 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 trial 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 sow so shall we reap If we sow to the flesh we shall of the flesh reap corruption but if we sow 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 does 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 do for him pass unrewarded This is the Inference which the Apostle makes from this large discourse of the Doctrine of the Resurrrection 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 useful and well-spent life will make our death to be sweet so our resurrection to be glorious Whatever acts of Piety we do 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
Consider it as an Argument ad hominem and shew the fitness and force of it to convince those with whom our Saviour disputed Secondly I shall enquire Whether it be more than an Argument ad hominem And if it be wherein the real and absolute force of it doth consist And then I shall apply this Doctrine of the Resurrection to the present Occasion I. First We will consider it as an Argument ad hominem and shew the fitness and force of it to convince those with whom our Saviour disputed And this will appear if we carefully consider these four things 1. What our Saviour intended directly and immediately to prove by this Argument 2. The extraordinary veneration which the Jews in general had for the Writings of Moses above any other Books of the Old Testament 3. The peculiar notion which the Jews had concerning the use of this Phrase or expression of God's being any one 's God 4. The great respect which the Jews had for these three Fathers of their Nation Abraham Isaac and Jacoh For each of these make our Saviour's Argument more forcible against those with whom he disputed First We will consider what our Saviour intended directly and immediately to prove by this Argument And that was this 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 only 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 misererable 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 only 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 only 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 vers 27. of this Chapt. The Sadduces who deny that there is any resurrection The meaning of which is more fully declared Act. 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 only 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 only the five Books of M ses 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 only 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 Bâ—â—ks of the Old Testament which were also written but to Oral Tradition For he says expresly that the Sadduces only 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 s me 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
grace or vertue whasoever 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. 9. v. 19. 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 do 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 treasurng up 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 current 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 certainiy do it to the greatest advantage because God will consider the very smallest thing that any of us do 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 do 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 do in ways of mercy and charity to the poor he takes as done to himself So our Lord hath told us Matt. 25.40 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 havn 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 fearful 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 only in things of this nature should methinks make a mighty impression upon us and be a powerful consideration to oblige us to have a very peculiar regard to
do well remember them And superadd this O Lord to all the grace and favour which thou hast shewn us all along in life not to remove us hence but with all advantage for Eternity when we shall be in a due preparation of mind in a holy constitution of soul in a perfect renunciation of the guise of this mad and sinful world when we shall be intirely resigned up to thee when we shall have clear acts of faith in God by Jesus Christ high and reverential thoughts of thee in our minds inlarged and inflamed affections towards thee c. And whensoever we shall come to leave this world which will be when thou shalt appoint for the issues of life and death are in thy hands afford us such a mighty power and presence of thy good Spirit that we may have solid consolation in believing and avoid all consternation of mind all doubtfulness and uncertainty concerning our everlasting condition and at length depart in the faith of God's Elect c. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace Thus you have the short History of the life and death of this eminent Person whose just Character cannot be given in few words and time will not allow me to use many To be able to describe him aright it were necessary one should be like him for which reason I must content my self with a very imperfect draught of him I shall not insist upon his exemplary piety and devotion towards God of which his whole life was one continued Testimony Nor will I praise his profound Learning for which he was justy had in so great reputation The moral improvements of his mind a Godlike temper and disposition as he was wont to call it he chiefly valued and aspired after that universal charity and goodness which he did continually preach and practise His Conversation was exceeding kind and assable grave and winning prudent and profitable He was slow to declare his judgment and modest in delivering it Never passionate never peremptory so far from imposing upon others that he was rather apt to yeild And though he had a most profound and well-poized judgment yet was he of all men I ever knew the most patient to hear others differ from him and the most easie to be convinced when good Reason was offered and which is seldom seen more apt to be favourable to another man's Reason than his own Studious and inquisitive men commonly at such an age at forty or fifty at the utmost have fixed and setled their Judgments in most Points and as it were made their last understanding supposing they have thought or read or heard what can be said on all sides of things and after that they grow positive and impatient of contradiction thinking it a disparagement to them to alter their judgment But our deceased Friend was so wise as to be willing to learn to the last knowing that no man can grow wiser without some change of his mind without gaining some knowledge which he had not or correcting some errour which he had before He had attained so perfect a mastery of his Passions that for the latter and greatest part of his life he was hardly ever seen to be transported with Anger and as he was extremely carefull not to provoke any man so not to be provoked by any using to say if I provoke a man he is the worse for my company and if I suffer my self to be provoked by him I shall be the worse for his He very seldom reproved any person in company otherwise than by silence or some sign of uneasiness or some very soft and gentle word which yet from the respect men generally bore to him did often prove effectual For he understood humane nature very well and how to apply himself to it in the most easie and effectual ways He was a great encourager and kind directour of young Divines and one of the most candid hearers of Sermons I think that ever was So that though all men did mightily reverence his Judgment yet no man had reason to fear his Censure He never spake well of himself nor ill of others making good that saying of Pansa in Tully neminem alterius qui suae consideret virtuti invidere that no man is apt to envy the worth and vertues of another that hath any of his own to trust to In a word he had all those vertues and in a high degree which an excellent temper great consideration long care and watchfulness over himself together with the assistance of God's grace which he continually implored and mightily relied upon are apt to produce Particularly he excelled in the vertues of Conversation humanity and gentleness and humility a prudent and peaceable and reconciling temper And God knows we could very ill at this time have spared such a Man and have lost from among us as it were so much balm for the healing of the Nation which is now so miserably rent and torn by those wounds which we madly give our selves But since God hath thought good to deprive us of him let his vertues live in our memory and his example in our lives Let us endeavour to be what he was and we shall one day be what he now is of blessed memory on Earth and happy for ever in Heaven And now methinks the consideration of the Argument I have been upon and of that great Example that is before us should raise our minds above this world and six them upon the glory and happiness of the other Let us then begin heaven here in the frame and temper of our minds in our heavenly affections and conversation in a due preparation for and in carnest desires and breathings after that blessed state which we firmly believe and assuredly hope to be one day possessed of when we shall be removed out of this sink of sin and sorrows into the Regions of bliss and immortality where we shall meet all those worthy and excellent persons who are gone before us and whose conversation was so delightfull to us in this world and will be much more so to us in the other when the spirits of just men shall be made perfect and shall be quit of all those infirmities which did attend and lessen them in this mortal state when we shall meet again with our dear Brother and all those good men whom we knew in this world and with the Saints and excellent persons of all Ages to enjoy their blessed friendship and society for ever in the presence of the blessed God where is fullness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore In a firm persuasion of this happy state let us every one of us say with David and with the same ardency of affection that he did As the Hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God O when shall I come and appear before God That so