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
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
could we but stand a while in the Mid-way between Heaven and Earth and at one Prospect see the Glories of both how faint and dim would all the Splendors of this World appear to us in Comparison with those above How would they sneak and disappear in the Presence of that eternal Brightness and be forced to shroud their vanquished Glories as Stars do when the Sun appears And whilst we interchangably turned our Eyes from one to t'other with what Shame and Confusion should we reflect upon the wretched groveling Temper of our own Minds what poor mean-spirited Creatures we are to satisfy our selves with the impertinent Trifles of this World when we have all the Joys of an everlasting Heaven before us and may if we please after a few Moments Obedience be admitted into them and enjoy them for evermore Ah! foolish Creatures that we are thus to prefer a far Countrey where we live on nothing but Husks before an everlasting Festivity that is celebrated in our Father's House where the meanest Creature hath Bread enough and to spare To chuse Nebuchadnezzar's Fate and leave Crowns and Scepters and live among the salvage Herds of the Wilderness Could the blessed Saints above divert so much from their more happy Employments as to look down a little from their Thrones of Glory and see how busy poor Mortals are in scrambling for this wretched Pelf which within a few Moments they must leave for ever how they jostle and rencounter defeat defraud and undermine one another what a most ridiculous Spectacle would it appear to them with what Scorn would they look on it or rather with what Pity to see a Company of heaven-born Souls capable of and designed for the same Glory and Happiness with themselves groveling like Swine in Dirt and Mire one priding it self in a gay Suit a nother hugging a Bag of glistering Earth a third stewing and dissolving it self in Luxury and Voluptuousness and all imployed at that poor and mean and miserable Rate as might justly make these blessed Spirits ashamed to own their Kindred and Alliance To tell you truly and seriously my Thoughts I cannot imagine but if when we are thus extravagantly concerned about the pitiful Trifles of this World the blessed Spirits do see and converse with us it is a much more ludicrous and ridiculous Sight in their Eyes to see us thus sillily concerned and imployed than it would be in us to see a Company of Boys with mighty Zeal and Concern wrangling and crying striving and scrambling for a Bag of Cherry-stones Wherefore in the Name of God Sirs let us not expose our selves any longer to the just Derision of all the World by our excessive Dotage upon the trifling Vanities of this Life but let us seriously consider that we are all concerned in Matters of much higher Importance even in the unspeakable Felicity of an everlasting Life 3 dly Hence I infer how unreasonable it is for good Men to be afraid of Dying since just on t'other side the Grave you see there is a State of endless Bliss and Happiness prepared to receive and entertain them so that to them Death is but a dark Entry out of a Wilderness of Sorrow into a Paradise of eternal Pleasure And therefore if it be an unreasonable Thing for sick Men to dread their Recovery for Slaves to tremble at their Jubilee or for Prisoners to quake at the News of a Goal-delivery how much more unreasonable is it for good Men to be afraid of Death which is but a momentary Passage from Sickness Labour and Confinement to eternal Health and Rest and Liberty For God's sake consider Sirs what is there in this World that you have Reason to be fond of what in the other that you need be afraid of Suppose that now your Souls were on the Wing mounting upwards to the celestial Abodes and that at some convenient Stand between Heaven and Earth from whence you might take a Prospect of both you were now making a Pause to survey and compare them with one another that having viewed over all the Glories above and tasted the beatifical Joys and heard the ravishing Melodies of Angels you were now looking down again with your Minds filled with these glorious Ideas upon this miserable World and that all in a View you beheld the vast Numbers of Men and Women that at this Time are fainting for Want of Bread of young Men that are hewn down by the Sword of War of Orphans that are weeping over their Fathers Graves of Mariners that are shrieking in a Storm because their Keel dashes against a Rock or bulges under them of People that are groaning upon Sick-Beds or racked with Agonies of Conscience that are weeping with Want mad with Oppression or desperate by too quick a Sense of a constant Infelicity Would you not do you think upon such a Review of both States be infinitely glad that you are gone from hence that you are out of the Noise and Participation of so many Evils and Calamities Would not the sight of the Glories above and the Miseries beneath you make you a Thousand Times more fearful of returning hither than ever you were of going hence Yes doubtless it would Why then should not our Sense of the Misery here and our Belief of the Happiness there produce the same Effect in us make us willing to remove our Quarters and exchange this Wilderness for that Canaan 'T is true indeed the Passage from one to t'other is commonly very painful and grievous but what of that In other Cases we are willing enough to endure a present Pain in order to a future Ease and if a few mortal Pangs will work a perfect Cure on me and recover me into everlasting Bliss and Life methinks the Hope of this blessed Effect should be sufficient to sweeten and indear that Agony and render it easy and desirable But alass To die is to leave all our Acquaintance to bid adieu to our dearest Friends and Relations to pass into an unknown State to converse with Strangers whose Laws and Customs we are not acquainted with why now all that looks sad in this is a very great mistake for I verily hope that I have more Friends and Acquaintance and Relatives in Heaven than I shall leave behind me here on Earth and if so I do but go from worse Friends to better for one Friend there is worth a Thousand here in Respect of all those endearing Accomplishments that render a Friend a Jewel But if I die a good Man I shall carry into Eternity with me the Genius and Temper of a glorified Spirit and that will recommend me to the Society of Heaven and render the Spirits of those just Men whose Names I never heard of as dear Friends to me in an Instant as if they had been my ancient Cronies and Acquaintance But why should I grieve at parting with my Friends below when I shall go to the best Friend I have in all the World to God my