this Life be our time to work in we should not consult our ease and softness and pleasures here for this is a place of labour and diligence not of rest We are a travelling to Heaven and must have our eye on our journeys end and not hunt after Pleasures and Diversions in the way The great end of living in this World is to be happy in the next and therefore we must wisely improve present things that they may turn to our future account Must make to our selves Friends of the Mammon of Unrighteousness that when we fail they may receive us into everlasting Habitations What concerns a better life must take up most of our thoughts and care and whatever endangers our future happiness must be rejected with all its charms It would not be worth the while to live some few years here were we not to live for ever and therefore it becomes a wise man who remembers that he must shortly leave this World to make this present life wholly subservient to his future happiness SECT II. The second Notion of Death that it is our putting off these Bodies II. LEt us now consider Death as it is our putting off these Bodies for this is the proper Notion of Death the separation of Soul and Body that the Body returns to Dust the Soul or Spirit unto God who gave it when we die we do not cease to be nor cease to live but only cease to live in these earthly Bodies the vital Union between Soul and Body is dissolved we are no longer encloister'd in a Tabernacle of Flesh we no longer feel the impressions of it neither the pains nor pleasures of the Body can affect us it can charm it can tempt no longer This needs no proof but very well deserves our most serious Meditations For 1. this teaches us the difference and distinction between Soul and Body which men who are sunk into flesh and sense are so apt to forget nay to lose the very notion and belief of it all their delights are fleshly they know no other pleasures but what their five senses furnish them with they cannot raise their thoughts above this body nor entertain any noble designs and therefore they imagine that they are nothing but flesh and blood a little organized and animated Clay and it is no great wonder that men who feel the workings and motions of no higher principle of life in them but flesh and sense should imagine that they are nothing but flesh themselves tho' methinks when we see the senseless and putrefying remains of a brave man before us it is hard to conceive that this is all of him that this is the thing which some few hours ago could reason and discourse was fit to govern a Kingdom or to instruct Mankind could despise flesh and sense and govern all his bodily Appetites and Inclinations was adorned with all divine graces and Vertues was the glory and pride of the Age And is this dead Carkase which we now see the whole of him Or was there a more divine Inhabitant which animated this earthly Machine which gave life and beauty and motion to it but is now removed To be sure those who believe that Death does not put an end to their being but only removes them out of this body which rots in the Grave while their Souls survive live and act and may be happy in a separate state should carefully consider this distinction between Soul and Body which would teach them a most Divine and Heavenly Wisdom For when we consider that we consist of Soul and Body which are the two distinct parts of Man this will teach us to take care of both for can any man who believes he has a Soul be concerned only for his Body A compound Creature cannot be happy unless both parts of him enjoy their proper pleasures He who enjoys onely the pleasures of the Body is never the happier for having a humane and reasonable Soul the soul of a Beast would have done as well and it may be better for bruit Creatures relish bodily pleasures as much and it may be more than Men do and reason is very troublesome to men who resolve to live like Bruits for it makes them ashamed and afraid which in many cases hinders or at least allays their pleasures And why should not a man desire the full and entire happiness of a man why should he despise any part of himself and that as you shall hear presently the best part too And therefore at least we ought to take as much care of our Souls as of our Bodies Do we adorn our Bodies that we may be fit to be seen and to converse with men and may receive those respects which are due to our quality and fortune and shall we not adorn our Souls too with those Christian Graces which make us lovely in the sight of God and men The Ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which is in the sight of God of great price which St. Peter especially recommends to Christian Women as a more valuable ornament than the outward adorning of plaiting the hair or wearing gold or putting on of apparel 1 Peter 3. 3 4. The ornaments of Wisdom and Prudence of well governed Passions of Goodness and Charity give a grace and beauty to all our actions and such a pleasing and charming air to our very countenance as the most natural Beauty or artificial Washes and Paints can never imitate Are we careful to preserve our Bodies from any hurt from pains and sickness from burning Feavers or the racking Gout or Stone and shall we not be as careful of the ease of the Mind too To quiet and calm those Passions which when they grow outragious are more intollerable than all natural or artificial Tortures to moderate those Desires which rage like Hunger and Thirst those Fears which convulse the Mind with trembling and paralytick motions those furious Tempests of Anger Revenge and Envy which rufle our Minds and fill us with Vexation Restlesness and Confusion of Thoughts especially those guilty Reflections upon ourselves that Worm in the Conscience which gnaws the Soul and torments us with shame and remorse and dreadful expectations of an Avenger These are the Sicknesses and Distempers of the Soul these are Pains indeed more sharp and pungent and killing pains than our Bodies are capable of The spirit of a man can bear his infirmity natural Courage or the powers of Reason or the comforts of Religion can support us under all other Sufferings but a wounded spirit who can bear And therefore a man who loves ease should in the first place take care of the ease of his Mind for that will make all other sufferings easie but nothing can support a man whose mind is wounded Are we fond of bodily Pleasures are we ready to purchase them at any rate And if we be men why should we despise the pleasures of the mind if we have Souls why should we not reap the
benefit and the pleasures of them Do you think there are no pleasures proper to the Soul have we Souls that are good for nothing of no use to us but only to relish the pleasures of the Body Ask those who have tried what the pleasures of Wisdom and Knowledge are which does as much excel the pleasures of seeing as Truth is more beautiful and glorious than the Sun ask them what a pleasure it is to know God the greatest and best Being and the brightest Object of our minds to contemplate his Wisdom and Goodness and Power in the Works of Creation and Providence to be swallowed up in that stupendious Mystery of Love the Redemption of Sinners by the Incarnation and Sufferings of the Son of God ask them what the pleasures of Innocence and Vertue are what the Feast of a good Conscience means which is the greatest Happiness to give or to receive what the Joys even of Sufferings and Persecutions of Want and Poverty and Reproach are for the sake of Christ ask a devout Soul what transports and ravishments of Spirit he feels when he is upon his knees when with St. Paul he is even snatched up into the third Heavens filled with God overflowing with praises and divine joys And does it not then become a man who has a reasonable Soul to seek after these rational these manly these divine Pleasures the pleasures of the Mind and Spirit which are proper and peculiar to a reasonable Creature Let him do this and then let him enjoy the pleasures of the Body as much as he can which will be very insipid and tastless when his Soul is ravished with more noble delights In a word if we are so careful to preserve the life of our Bodies which we know must die and rot and putrifie in the Grave methinks we should not be less careful to preserve the life of our Souls which is the only immortal part of us for though our Souls cannot die as our Bodies do yet they may be miserable and that is called eternal Death where the Worm never dieth and the Fire never goeth out For to be always miserable is infinitely worse than not to be at all and therefore is the most formidable Death And if we are so unwilling to part with these mortal Bodies we ought in reason to be much more afraid to lose our Souls II. That Death is our putting off these Bodies teaches us That the Soul is the only principle of Life and Sensation The Body cannot live without the Soul but as soon as it is parted from it it loses all sence and motion and returns to its original Dust but the Soul can and does live without the Body and therefore there is the principle of Life This may be thought a very common and obvious Observation and indeed so it is but the consequences of this are not so commonly observed and yet are of great use and moment For 1. this shews us that the Soul is the best part of us that the Soul indeed is the Man because it is the only seat of Life and Knowledge and all Sensations for a Man is a living reasonable and understanding Being and therefore a living reasonable Soul not an earthly Body which has no life or sense but what it derives from the Soul must be the Man Hence in Scripture Soul so frequently signifies the Man thus we read of the Souls that were born to Iacob and the Souls that came with him into Aegypt 46. Gen. that is his Sons and Soul signifies our selves a Friend which is as thy own Soul that is as dear to us as our selves 13. Deut. 6. And Ionathan loved David as his own Soul that is as himself 1 Sam. 18. 3. For in propriety of Speech the Body has no sense at all but the Soul lives in the Body and feels all the motions and impressions of it so that it is the Soul only that is capable of Happiness or Misery of Pain or Pleasure and therefore it is the only concernment of a wise man to take care of his Soul as our Saviour tells us What shall it profit a man though he gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul 16. Matth. 26. The reason of which is easily apprehended when we remember that the Soul only is capable of Happiness or Misery that it is the Soul which must enjoy every thing else And what can the whole World then signifie to him who has no Soul to enjoy it whose Soul is condemned to endless and eternal Miseries Such a miserable Soul is as uncapable of enjoying the World or any thing in it as if it had lost its being 2ly Hence we learn the true notion of bodily Pleasures that they are such pleasures as the Soul feels by its union to the Body for it is not the Body that feels the pleasures but the Soul though the Body be the instrument of them and therefore how fond soever we are of them we may certainly conclude that bodily pleasures are the meanest pleasures of humane nature because the union to these earthly Bodies is the meanest and most despicable state of reasonable Souls These are not its proper and genuine pleasures which must result from its own nature and powers but are only external impressions the light and superficial touches of matter and it would be very absurd to conceive that the Soul which is the onely subject of pleasure should have no pleasures of its own but borrow its whole Happiness from its affinity and alliance to Matter or that its greatest pleasures should be owing to external impressions not to the actings of its own natural faculties and powers Which may convince us as I observed before that the pleasures of the mind are much the greatest and noblest pleasures of the Man and he who would be truly happy must seek for it not in Bodily entertainments but in the improvements and exercise of Reason and Religion 3ly Hence we learn also that the Body was made for the Soul not the Soul for the Body as that which in it self has no Life and Sense is made for the use of that which has The Body is only a convenient habitation for the Soul in this World an Instrument of Action and a Tryal and Exercise of Vertue but the Soul is to use the Body and to govern it to tast its pleasures and to set bounds to them to make the Body serviceable to the ends and purposes of Reason and Vertue not to subject Reason to Passion and Sense If the Body was made for the use of the Soul it was never intended the Soul should wholly consorm it self to it and by its sympathy with corporeal Passions transform it self into a sensual and brutish nature Such degenerate Creatures are those who live only to serve the Body who value nothing else and seek for nothing else but how to gratifie their Appetites and Lusts which is to invert
Christ will secure the life of our Souls and translate us to a happy state after death but it will not secure us from the necessity of dying Our Bodies must die as a punishment of Sin and putrifie in the Grave but yet they are not lost for ever for if the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Iesus from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit which dwelleth in you that is if your Bodies be cleansed and sanctified be the Temples of the Holy Spirit he will raise them up again into a new Life Therefore brethren we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh for if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live If ye subdue the fleshly principle if ye bring the Flesh into subjection to the Spirit not only your Souls shall live but your Bodies shall be raised again to immortal Life And this is a mighty obligation on us if we love our Bodies and would have them glorious and immortal not to pamper the Flesh and gratifie its appetites and lusts not to yeild your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity but to yeild your members servants to righteousness unto holiness that being made free from sin and becoming the servants of God ye may have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life As the same Apostle speaks 6. Rom. 19 22. it is our relation to Christ that our very Bodies are his Members it is our relation to the Holy Spirit that our Bodies are his Temples which entitles our Bodies to a glorious Resurrection But will Christ own such Bodies for his Members as are Members of a Harlot Will the Holy Spirit dwell in such a Temple as is defiled with impure Lusts And therefore such polluted Bodies will rise as they lay down in Dishonour will rise not to immortal Life but to eternal Death For can we think those Bodies well prepared for a glorious Resurrection to be refined into spiritual Bodies which are become ten times more Flesh than God made them which are the Instruments and the Tempters to all Impurity Is there any reason to expect that such a Body should rise again spiritual and glorious which expires in the flames of Lust which falls a Sacrifice in the quarrel of a Strumpet which sinks under the load of its own Excesses and Eats and Drinks itself into the Grave which scorns to die by Adam's sin but will die by its own without expecting till the Laws of Mortality according to the ordinary course of Nature must take place Holiness is the only principle of Immortality both to Soul and Body Those love their Bodies best those honour them most who make them instruments of Vertue who endeavour to refine and spiritualize them and leave nothing of fleshly appetites and inclinations in them those are kindest to their Bodies who consecrate them for Immortality who take care they shall rise again into the Partnership of eternal Joys All the severities of Mortification abstinence from bodily pleasures watchings Fastings hard lodging when they are instruments of a real Vertue not the arts of Superstition when they are intended to subdue our Lusts not to purchase a liberty of sinning are the most real expressions of honour and respect to these Bodies It shews how unwilling we are to part with them or to have them miserable how desirous we are of their advancement into eternal Glories for the less of Flesh they carry to the Grave with them the more glorious will they rise again This is offering up our Bodies a living Sacrifice when we intirely devote them to the service of God and such living Sacrifices shall live for ever for if God receives them a living Sacrifice he will preserve them to immortal Life But the highest honour we can do these Bodies and the noblest use we can put them to is to offer them up in a proper sence a Sacrifice to God that is willingly and chearfully to die for God when he calls us to suffering first to offer up our Souls to God in the pure flames of Love and Devotion and then freely to give up our Bodies to the Stake or to the Gibbet to wild Beasts or more savage Men. This vindicates our Bodies from the natural shame and reproach of Death what we call a natural Death is very inglorious it is a mark of dishonour because it is a punishment of Sin Such Bodies at best are sown in dishonour and corruption as St. Paul speaks but to die a Martyr to fall a Sacrifice to God this is a glorious Death this is not to yeild to the Laws of Mortality to Necessity and Fate but to give back our Bodies to God who gave them to us and he will keep that which we have committed to his trust to a glorious Resurrection and it will be a surprizing and astonishing Glory with which such Bodies shall rise again as have suffered for their Lord for if we suffer with him we shall also be glorified together Which seems to imply that those shall nearest resemble the Glory of Christ himself who suffer as he did This is the way to make our Bodies immortal and glorious We cannot keep them long here they are corruptible Bodies and will tumble into Dust we must part with them for a while and if ever we expect and desire a happy meeting again we must use them with modesty and reverence now We dishonour our Bodies in this World when we make them instruments of Wickedness and Lust and lay an eternal foundation of shame and infamy for them in the next World it is a mortal and killing love to cherish the fleshly Principle to make provision for the Flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof but if you love your Bodies make them immortal that though they die they may rise again out of their Graves with a youthful vigour and beauty that they may live for ever without pain or sickness without the decays of age or the interruptions of sleep or the fatigue and weariness of labour without wanting either food or raiment without the least remains of corruptions without knowing what it is to tempt or to be tempted without the least uneasie thought the least disappointment the least care in the full and blissful enjoyment of the Eternal and Soveraign Good. SECT III. Death considered as our Entrance upon a new and unknown State of Life III. LEt us now consider Death as it is an Entrance upon a new and unknown State of Life for it is a new thing to us to live without these Bodies it is what we have never tried yet and we cannot guess how we shall feel ourselves when we are stript of Flesh and Blood what entertainments we shall find in that place where there is neither eating nor drinking neither marrying nor giving in marriage what kind of
a Gospel-grace only while we live in this World at a great distance from Heaven to be contented in all Conditions to trust God in the greatest Dangers to suffer patiently for Righteousness sake c. I need not tell you are Vertues proper only for this World for there can be no exercise for them in Heaven unless we can think it a Vertue to be patient and contented with the Happiness and glory of that blessed Place Thus most of the Sins which the Gospel forbids under the penalty of eternal Damnation can be committed by us only in this World and in these Bodies such as Fornication Adultery Uncleanness Rioting Drunkenness Injustice Murder Theft Oppression of the Poor and Fatherless Earthly Pride and Ambition Covetuousness a fond Idolatry of this World Disobedience to Parents and Governours c. now if these be the things for which men shall be saved or damned it is certain that men must be saved or damned only for what they do in this Life Bad men who are fond of this World and of bodily Pleasures which makes them impatient of the severe restraints of Religion complain very much of this that their eternal Happiness or Misery depends upon such a short and uncertain Life that they must spend this Life under the awe and terrour of the next that some few momentary Pleasures must be punished with endless Misery and that if they out-slip their time of Repentance if they venture to sin on too long or die a little too soon there is no remedy for them for ever But let bad men look to this and consider the folly of their Choice I am sure how hard soever it may be thought to be eternally damned for the short pleasures of Sin no man can reasonably think it a hard condition of eternal Salvation to spend a short Life in the Service of God And if we will allow that God may justly require our Service and Obedience for so great a Reward as Heaven is where can we do him this Service but on Earth If a corrupt Nature must be cleansed and purified if an earthly Nature must be spiritualized and refined before it can be fit to live in Heaven where can this be done but on Earth while we live in these Bodies of flesh and are encompass'd with sensible Objects This is the time for a Divine Soul which aspires after Immortality to raise itself above the Body to conquer this present World by the belief and hope of unseen things to awaken and exercise its spiritual Powers and Faculties and to adorn itself with those Graces and Vertues which come down from Heaven and by the Mercies of God and the Merits of our Saviour will carry us up thither There is no middle State between living in this Body and out of it and therefore whatever habits and dispositions of Mind are necessary to make a Spirit happy when it goes out of this Body must be formed and exercised while it is in it Earth and Heaven are two extreams and opposite states of Life and therefore it is impossible immediately to pass from one to t'other a Soul which is wholly sensualiz'd by living in the Body if it be turn'd out of the Body without any change cannot ascend into Heaven which is a state of perfect Purity for in all reason the place and state of life must be fitted to the nature of things and therefore a life of Holiness while we live in these Bodies is a kind of a middle State between Earth and Heaven such a man belongs to both Worlds he is united to this World by his Body which is made of Earth and feels the impression of sensible Objects but his Heart and Affections are in Heaven by Faith he contemplates those invisible Glories and feels and relishes the pleasures of a heavenly Life and he who has his conversation in Heaven while he lives in this body is ready prepared and fitted to ascend thither when he goes out of it he passes from Earth to Heaven through the middle region if I may so speak of a holy and divine Life Besides this it was necessary to the happiness and good Government of this present World that future Rewards or Punishments should have relation to the good or evil which we do in this Life This in many cases lays restraints upon the lusts and passions of men when the Rods and Axes of Princes cannot reach them it over-awes them with invisible terrours and makes a guilty Conscience it s own Judge and Tormenter it sowers all the pleasures of sin stuffs the Adulterer's Pillow with Thorns and mingles Gall and Wormwood with the Drunkard's Cups it governs those who are under no other government whose boundless and uncontroulable power gives them opportunity of doing what mischief they please and gives them impunity in doing it but the most lawless Tyrants who fear no other Power yet feel the invisible restraints of Conscience and those secret and severe rebukes which make them tremble Nay many times the fear of the other World governs those whom no present Evils or Punishments could govern men who would venture whatever they could suffer in this life by their sins are yet afraid of Hell and dare not venture that those who would venture being sick after a Debauch who would venture to sacrifice their Bodies their Estates their Reputation in the service of their Lusts who are contented to take their fortune at the Gallows or at the Whipping-post yet dare not venture Lakes of Fire and Brimstone the Worm that never dieth and the Fire that never goeth out Thus on the other hand How much is it for the present Happiness of the World that Men should live in the practise of those Christian Graces and Vertues which no Humane Laws command and the neglect of which no Humane Laws will punish As to instance only in the love of Enemies and forgiveness of Injuries and such an universal Charity as does all the good it can to all Men. I need not prove that the exercise of these Vertues is for the good of the World or that no Humane Laws require the exercise of them in such noble measures and degrees as the Gospel does The Laws of the Land allow scope enough to satisfie the most revengful Man who will use all the extremities and all the vexatious arts of Prosecution unless nothing will satisfie his revenge but bloud and a speedy execution for the Laws ought to punish those Injuries which a good Christian ought to forgive and then some Men may be undone by legal Revenge and others damned for taking it If no Man should do any good Offices for others but what the Law commands there would be very little good done in the World for Laws are principally intended for the preservation of Justice but the acts of a generous and bountiful Charity are free and Men may be as charitable as the Law requires without any degree of that divine Charity which will carry them to
Heaven Nothing but the hopes and fears of the next World can enforce these Duties on us and this justifies the wisdom and goodness of God in making the present exercise of these Vertues necessary to our future Rewards I shall only add that whatever complaints bad Men may make that their future Happiness or Misery depends upon the government and conduct of their Lives in this World I am sure all Mankind would have had great reason to complain if it had been otherwise For how miserable must it have made us to have certainly known that we must be eternally happy or eternally miserable in the next World and not to have as certainly known how to escape the Miseries and obtain the Hapâ—iness of it And how could that be possibly known if the trial of it had been reserved for an unknown state What a terrible thing had it been to die could no Man have been sure what would have become of him in the next World as no Man could have been upon this supposal for how can any Man know what his reward shall be when he is so far from having done his work that he knows not what he is to do till he comes into the next World. But now since we shall be rewarded according to what we have done in this Body every Man certainly knows what will make him happy or miserable in the next World and it is his own fault if he do not live so as to secure immortal Life and what a blessed state is this to have so joyful a prospect beyond the Grave and to put off these Bodies with the certain hopes of a glorious Resurrection This I think is sufficient to vindicate the wisdom and goodness of God in making this present Life a state of trial and probation for the happiness of the next But to proceed 2. If this Life only be our state of trial and probation for Eternity then Death as it puts a final period to this Life so it puts a final end to our work too our day of Grace and time of Working for another World ends with this Life We shall easily apprehend the necessity of this if we remember that Death which is the punishment of Sin is not meerly the death of the Body but that state of Misery to which Death translates Sinners and therefore if we die while we are in a state of Sin under the Curse and under the power of Death there is no Redemption for us because the Justice of God has already seiz'd us the Sentence is already executed and that is too late to obtain a Pardon for in this case Death answers to our casting into Prison from whence we shall never come forth till we have paid the uttermost Farthing as our Saviour represents it 5 Matt. 25 26 for indeed Sin is the death of the Soul and those who are under the power of Sin are in a state of Death and if they die before they have a principle of a new Life in them they fall under the power of Death that is into that state of Misery and Punishment which is appointed for such dead Souls and therefore our redemption from Death by Christ is begun in our dying to Sin and walking in newness of Life which is our conformity to the Death and the Resurrection of Christ 6 Rom. 4. This is to be dead to sin and to be alive to GOD as Christ is and if we die with Christ we shall rise with him also into immortal Life which is begun in this World and will be perfected in the next which is the sum of St. Paul's argument v. 6 7 8 9 10 11. thus he tells us 8 Rom. 10 11. If Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness That is our Bodies are mortal and must die by an irreversible Sentence which God pronounc'd against Adam when he had sinned but the Soul and Spirit has a new principle of Life a principle of Righteousness and Holiness by which it lives to God and therefore cannot fall into a state of Death when the Body dies But if the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you That is when the divine Spirit has quicken'd our Souls and raised them into a new Life though our Bodies must die yet the same divine Spirit will raise them up also into immortal Life This is the plain account of the matter If Death arrests us while we are in a state of Sin and Death we must die for ever but if our Souls are alive to God by a principle of Grace and Holiness before our Bodies die they must live for ever A dead Soul must die with its Body that is sink into a state of Misery which is the death and the loss of the Soul a living Soul survives the Body in a state of Bliss and Happiness and shall receive its Body again glorious and immortal at the Resurrection of the Just but this change of state must be made while we live in these Bodies a dead Soul cannot revive in the other World nor a living Soul die there and therefore this Life is the day of God's Grace and Patience the next World is the place of Judgment And the reason St. Peter gives why God is not hasty in executing judgment but is long suffering to us ward is because he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3. 5. Hence the Apostle to the Hebrews exhorts them Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your fathers tempted me proved me and saw my works forty years Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said They do alway err in their hearts and they have not known my ways So I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest There is some dispute what is meant by to day whether it be the day of this Life or such a fixt and determin'd day and season of Grace as may end long before this Life The example of the Israelites of whom God swear in his wrath that they should die in the Wilderness and never enter into his Rest that is into the Land of Canaan seems to incline it to the latter sence for this sentence That they should not enter into his Rest was pronounc'd against them long before they died for which reason they wandered forty Years in the Wilderness till all that Generation of Men were dead and if we are concern'd in this example then we also may provoke God to such a degree that he may pronounce the final sentence on us That we shall never enter into Heaven long before we leave this World Our day of Grace may
happiness which does most sensibly affect them But would they but seriously consider things they might see reason to think otherwise that the unknown joys and pleasures of the other World are much greater than any pleasures which they feel here For let us thus reason with our selves I find I am mortal and must shortly leave this World and yet I believe that my Soul cannot die as my Body does but shall only be translated to another state whatever I take pleasure in in this World I must leave behind me and know not what I shall find in the next But surely the other World where I must live for ever is not worse furnished than this World which I must so quickly leave For has God made me immortal and provided no sorts of pleasures and entertainments for an immortal state when he has so liberally furnished the short and changeable Scene of this Life I know not indeed what the pleasures of the next World are but no more did I know what the pleasures of this World were till I came into it and therefore that is no argument that there are no pleasures there because I do not yet know them and if there be any pleasures there surely they must be greater than what are here because it is a more lasting State For can we think that God has emptied all his Stores and Treasures into this World Nay can we think that he has given us the best things first where we can only just tast them and leave them behind us which is to excite and provoke an appetite which shall be restless and uneasy to Eternity No surely the other World must be infinitely a more happy place than this because it will last infinitely longer The Divine Wisdom and Goodness has certainly reserved the best things for Eternity for as eternal beings are the most perfect so they must be the most happy too unless we can separate perfection and happiness And therefore I cannot but conclude that there are greater pleasures that there is a happier state of Life then this because there is a Life which lasts for ever 2. This will naturally teach us to live in expectation of better things of greater though unknown and unexperienced pleasures which methinks all Men should do who know that there are better things to be had and that they must go into that State where these better things are to be had For can any Man be contented with a less degree of happiness who knows there is a greater This is stupidity and baseness of Spirit an ignoble mind which is not capable of great hopes Ambition and Covetousness indeed are ill names but yet they are symptoms of a great and generous Soul and are excellent Vertues when directed to their right Objects that is to such Objects as are truely great and excellent for it is only the meanness of the Object which makes them Vices to be ambitious of true Honour of the true Glory and Perfection of our Natures is the very principle and incentive of Vertue But to be ambitious of Titles of Place of some Ceremonious respects and Civil Pageantry is as vain and little as the things are which they court To be covetous of true and real Happiness to set no bounds nor measures to our desire or pursuit of it is true greatness of mind which will take up with nothing on this side perfection for God and Nature have set no bounds to our desires of happiness but as it is in natural so it ought to be in moral agents every thing grows till it comes to its maturity and perfection but then Covetousness is a Vice when men mistake their Object and are insatiable in their desires of that which is not their Happiness as Gold and Silver Houses and Lands what is more than we want and more than we can use cannot be the happiness of a Man. And thus it is on the other hand though Humility be a great Vertue as it is opposed to earthly ambitions as it sets us above the little opinions and courtship of the World which are such mean things as argue meanness of Spirit to stoop to them yet it is not Humility but sordidness to be regardless of true Honour Thus to be contented with our external Fortune in this World what ever it be to be able to see the greater prosperity and splendor of other Men without envy and without repining at our own meanness is a great Vertue because these things are not our happiness but for the use and conveniencies of this present Life and to be contented with a little of them for present use is an Argument that we do not think them our happiness which is the true excellency of this Vertue of Contentment but to be contented if we may so call it to want that which is our true happiness or any degree or portion of it to be contented never to enjoy the greatest and the best things is a Vice which contradicts the natural desires of happiness and you may call it what you will if you can think of any name bad enough for it It is the most despicable temper in the World to have no sense of true Honour or Happiness or when we know there are greater and better things to take up with some low enjoyments And therefore let the thoughts of this ennoble our minds and since there are better things in the other World let us use our utmost endeavours to possess our selves of them let us live like Men who are born for greater things then this World affords let us endeavour to inform our selves what the happiness of the next World is and how we may attain it and let us use all present things as those who know there are infinitely greater and better things reserved for us in the next World. III. This should teach us also not to be over-concerned for the shortness of our lives Our lives indeed are very short they flie away like a shadow and fade like the Flowers of the Field and this were a very unsupportable thought were there either no life after this or not so happy a life as this But besides all the other proofs we have of another life the very shortness of our lives may convince us that Death does not put an end to our being For can we imagine that so noble a Creature as Man is was made for a day Man I say who is big with such immortal designs full of projects for future ages who can look backward and forward and see an Eternity without beginning and without end Who was made to contemplate the wonders of Nature and Providence and to admire and adore his Maker Who is the Lord of this lower World but has eyes to look up to Heaven and view all the glories of it and to pry into that invisible World which this veil of Flesh intercepts the sight of Man who is so long a Child and by such slow steps arrives to the use of
transformed into a spiritual nature as St. Paul expresly tells us 1 Cor. 15. 42 43 44. It is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption it is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory it is sown in weakness it is raised in power it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body For as he adds 50 v. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God neither can corruption inherit incorruption Which is true of a fleshly Soul but here is understood of a Body of flesh and blood which is of a corruptible nature As our reason may satisfie us that such gross earthly Bodies as we now carry about with us cannot live and subsist in those pure regions of Light and Glory which God inhabits no more than you can lodge a stone in the Air or breathe nothing but pure Aether and therefore our glorified Bodies will have none of those earthly passions which these earthly Bodies have will relish none of the pleasures of flesh and blood that upon this account we may truly say that when we once put off these Bodies we shall ever after live without them Now the use of this Observation is so very obvious that methinks no man can miss it for when we consider that we must put off these Bodies and for ever live without them the very next thought in course is that we ought to live without our Bodies now as much as possibly we can while we do live in them to have but very little commerce with flesh and sense to wean ourselves from all bodily pleasures to stifle its appetites and inclinations and to bring them under perfect command and government that when we see it fit we may use bodily pleasures without fondness or let them alone without being uneasie for want of them that is that we may govern all our bodily appetites not they govern us For a wise man should thus reason with himself If I grow so fond of this Body and the pleasures of it if I can relish no other pleasures if I value nothing else what shall I do when I leave this body For bodily pleasures can last no longer than my body does what shall I do in the next World when I shall be striped of this body when I shall be a naked Soul or whatever other covering I may have shall have no flesh and blood about me and therefore all the pleasures I value now will then vanish like a dream for it is impossible to enjoy bodily pleasures when I have no body And though there were no other punishments in the next Life yet it is a great pain to me now to have my desires disappointed or delayed and should I retain the same fondness for these things in the next World where they cannot be had the eternal despair of enjoying them would be punishment enough Indeed we cannot tell what alteration our putting off these Bodies will make in the temper and disposition of our minds We see that a long and severe fit of sickness while it lasts will make men absolute Philosophers and give them a great contempt of bodily pleasures nay will make the very thoughts of those pleasures nauseous to them which they were very fond of in health Long Fasting and Abstinence and other bodily Severities are an excellent means to alter the habits and inclinations of the Mind and one would think that to be separated from these Bodies must needs make a greater alteration in our Minds than either Sickness or bodily Severities That I dare not say that a sensual man when he is separated from this body shall feel the same sensual desires and inclinations which he had in it and shall be tormented with a violent thirst after those pleasures which he cannot enjoy in a separate state But this I dare say that a man who is wholly sunk into flesh and sense and relishes no other pleasures is not capable of living happily out of this body unless you could find out a new Scene of material and sensible Pleasures to entertain him for though the particular appetites and inclinations of the body may cease yet his very Soul is sensualized and therefore is uncapable of the pleasures of a spiritual Life For indeed setting aside that mischief which the unruly lusts and appetites of men and the immoderate use of bodily pleasures does either to the persons themselves or to publick Societies and the true reason why we must mortifie our sensual inclinations is to improve our minds in all divine Graces for the Flesh and the Spirit cannot thrive together sensual and spiritual Joys are so contrary to each other that which of them soever prevails according to the degrees of its prevalence it stifles and and suppresses or wholly subdues the other A Soul which is ravished with the love of God and the Blessed Jesus transported with the spiritual hopes of another Life which feels the passions of Devotion and is enamour'd with the glories and beauties of Holiness and divine Vertues must have such a very mean opinion of Flesh and Sense as will make it disgust bodily pleasures or be very indifferent about them and a Soul which is under the government of Sense and Passion cannot tast those more intellectual and divine Joys for it is our esteem of things which gives a relish to them and it is impossible we can highly esteem one without depretiating and undervaluing the other It is universally true in this case what our Saviour tells us No man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other Ye cannot serve God and Mammon 6. Matth. 24. The least beginnings of a divine Nature in us is to love God above all the World and as we every day grow more devoutly and passionately in love with God and take greater pleasure in the spiritual acts of Religion in praising God and contemplating the divine Nature and Perfections and meditating on the spiritual Glories of another Life so we abate of our value for present things till we get a perfect conquest and mastery of them But he who is perfectly devoted to the pleasures of the Body and the service of his Lusts has no spiritual Life in him and tho' putting off these Bodies may cure our bodily appetites and passions yet it cannot give us a new principle of Life nor work an essential Change in a fleshly Nature and therefore such a man when he is removed from this Body and all the Enjoyments of it is capable of no other Happiness Nay though we are renewed by the divine Spirit and have a principle of a new Life in us yet according to the degree of our love to present things so much the more indisposed are we for the Happiness of unbodied Spirits And therefore since we must put off these Bodies if we would live for ever happily without them we must begin betimes to shake off Matter
business and employment we shall have there where we shall have no occasion for any of these things which employ our time here for when we have no use of Food or Raiment or Physick or Houses to dwell in or whatever our Union to these Bodies makes necessary to us now all those Trades and Arts which are to provide these conveniences for us must then cease This must needs be a very surprizing change and though we are assured of a very great happiness in the next World which infinitely exceeds whatever men call happiness or pleasure here yet most men are very unwilling to change a known for an unknown happiness and it confounds and amazes them to think of going out of these Bodies they know not whither Now this consideration will suggest several very wise and useful thoughts to us 1. How necessary an entire Trust and Faith in God is We cannot live happily without it in this World and I am sure we cannot die comfortably without it for this is the noblest exercise of Faith to be able chearfully to resign up our Spirits into the hands of God when we know so little of the state of the other World whither we are going This was the first trial of Abraham's Faith when in obedience to the command of God he forsook his own Country and his Father's House and followed God into a strange Land 11. Hebr. 8. By faith Abraham when he was called to go into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance obeyed and he went out not knowing whither he went. Canaan was a Type of Heaven and Heaven is as unknown a Country to us as Canaan was to Abraham And herein we must imitate this Father of the Faithful to be contented to leave our native Country and the World we know to follow God whithersoever he leads us into unknown Regions and to an unknown and unexperienced Happiness This indeed all men must do because they cannot avoid leaving this World but must go when God calls for them but that which makes it our choice and an act of Faith and Vertue is this such a strong perswasion of and firm reliance on the Goodness and Wisdom and Promises of God that though we are ignorant of the state of the other World we can chearfully forsake all our known Enjoyments and embrace the promises of an unknown Happiness And there are two distinct acts of this which answer to Abraham's Faith in leaving his own Country and following God into a strange Land the first is the exercise of our Faith while we live the second when we die To mortifie all our inordinate Appetites and Desires to deny ourselves the sinful Vanities and Pleasures of this Life for the Promises of an unknown Happiness in the next World is our mystical dying to this World leaving our native Country and following God into a strange and unknown Land to quit all our present Possessions in this World to forfeit our Estates our Liberties all that is dear to us here nay to forsake our native Country rather than offend God and lose our Title to the Promises of an unknown Happiness is in a literal sence to leave our own Country at God's command not knowing whither we go which is like Abraham's going out of his own Country and living as a Sojourner in the Land of Promise without having any Inheritance in it this is that Faith which overcomes the World which makes us live as Pilgrims and Strangers here as those who seek for another Country for a heavenly Canaan as the Apostle tells us Abraham did For by faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Iacob the heirs with him of the same promise for he looked for a city which hath foundations whose Builder and Maker is God 11. Heb. 9 10. And when we come to die and can with joy and triumph in an assurance of God's promises commend our Spirits to him and trust him with our Souls when we know not the Country we go to and never experienced what the happiness of it is without any concern or solocitude about it this is a noble act of Faith which does great honour to God and conquers all the natural aversions to death and makes it an easie thing to leave this World and the object of our desire and choice to see that promised Land and tast those pleasures which we are yet strangers to We must live and we must die in Faith too as the Patriarchs did who all died in Faith not having received the Promises but seeing them a far off and for that reason the other World must be in a great measure unknown to us for could we see it could we before hand tast the pleasures of it or know what they are it would be no act of Faith to leave this World for it to be willing to be translated from Earth to Heaven but no man is worthy of Heaven who dares not take God's word for it and therefore God has concealed those Glories from us and given us only a promise of a great but an unknown Happiness for the object of our hope to be a tryal of our Faith and Obedience and Trust in him That the other World is an unknown State to us trains us up to a great trust and confidence in God for we must trust God for our Souls and for the next World and this naturally teaches us to trust God in this World too to live securely upon his Providence and to suffer him to dispose of us as he pleases Indeed no man can trust God in this World who has not a stedfast Faith in God for the rewards of the next for the external administrations of Providence are not always what we could wish but good men are very well contented and have great reason to be so to take this World and the next together and therefore are not solicitous about present things but leave God to chuse what condition for them he pleases as being well assured of his goodness who has prepared for them eternal rewards And those who can trust God with their Souls who can trust him for an immortal Life for an unseen and unknown Happiness will find no difficulty in trusting him for this World I mean those who are concerned for their future Happiness and take any care of their Souls If all who are unconcerned for their Souls and never trouble their heads what will become of them hereafter may be said to trust God with their Souls then I confess this will not hold true for the greatest number of those who thus trust God with their Souls will trust him for nothing else But this is not to trust God but to be careless of our Souls but now when a man who stedfastly believes another Life after this and is heartily concerned what will become of him for ever can securely rely on God's promises beyond his own knowledge and prospect
sinned and brought Death into the World and thus Death passed upon all men for his sin notwithstanding they themselves were Sinners for tho' they were Sinners yet that they died was not owing to their own sins because they had not sinned against any Law which threatned death but to the sin of Adam and therefore in a proper sence in Adam all die Now this is thought very hard that the sin of Adam should bring death upon all his Posterity that one man sinned and all men must die and therefore I suppose no man will think it improper to my present Argument to give you such an account of this matter as will evidently justifie the Wisdom and Goodness as well as the Justice of GOD in it I. In the first place then I observe that an immortal Life in this World is not the original Right of earthly Creatures but was wholly owing to the Grace and Favour of God. I call that an original Right which is founded in the Nature of things for otherwise properly speaking no Creatures have any right either to being or to subsistance which is a continuance in being It is the Goodness and the Power of God which both made the World and upholds and sustains all things in being And therefore Plato confesses that the inferiour Gods those immortal Spirits which he thought worthy of Divine Honours were both made by the Supreme God and did subsist by his Will for He who made all things can annihilate them again when he pleases and therefore their Subsistence is as much owing to the Divine Goodness as their Creation But yet there is a great difference between the natural gift and bounty of God and what is supernatural or above the nature of things What God makes by nature immortal so that it has no principles of Mortality in its constitution Immortality may be said to be its natural Right because it is by nature immortal as Spirits and the Souls of Men are And in this case it would be thought very hard that a whole race of immortal Beings should be made mortal for the sin of one which would be to deprive them of their natural Right to Immortality without their own fault But when any Creature is immortal not by Nature but by supernatural Grace God may bestow this supernatural Immortality upon what conditions he pleases and take the forfeiture of it when he sees fit and this was the case of Man in Innocence His Body was not by Nature immortal for a Body made of Dust will naturally resolve into Dust again and therefore without a supernatural power an earthly Body must die for which reason God provided a remedy against Mortality the Tree of Life which he planted in Paradise and without which man could not be immortal so that Mortality was a necessary consequence of his losing Paradise for when he was banished from the Tree of Life he could have no Remedy nor Preservative against Death Now I suppose no man will question but God might very justly turn Adam out of Paradise for his disobedience and then he must die and all his Posterity die in him for he being by Nature mortal must beget mortal Children and having forfeited the Tree of Life he and his Posterity who are all shut out of Paradise with him must necessarily die Which takes nothing from them to which any man had a right for no man had a natural right to Paradise or the Tree of Life but only leaves them to those Laws of Mortality to which an earthly Creature is naturally subject God had promised Paradise and the Tree of Life to no man but to Adam himself whom he created and placed in Paradise and therefore he took nothing away from any man but from Adam when he thrust him out of Paradise Children indeed must follow the condition of their Parents had Adam preserved his right to the Tree of Life we had enjoyed it too but he forfeiting it we lost it in him and in him die We lost I say not any thing that we had a right to but such a supernatural Priviledge as we might have had had he preserved his Innocence and this is a sufficient Vindication of the Justice of God in it He has done us no injury we are by nature mortal Creatures and he leaves us in that mortal state and to withdraw favours upon a reasonable provocation is neither hard nor unjust II. For we must consider farther when Sin was once entred into the World an immortal Life here became impossible without a constant series of Miracles Adam had sinned and thereby corrupted his own nature and therefore must necessarily propagate a corrupt nature to his Posterity His earthly Passions were broke loose he now knew good and evil and therefore was in the hands of his own counsel to refuse or choose the good or evil and when the Animal Life was once awakned in him there was no great dispute which way his affections would incline To be sure it is evident enough in his Posterity whose boisterous passions act such Tragedies in the World. Now suppose in a state of Innocence that the Tree of Life would have preserved men immortal when no man would injure himself nor another when there was no danger from wild Beasts or an intemperate Air or poisonous Herbs yet I suppose no man will say but that even in Paradise itself could we suppose any such thing Adam might have been devoured by a Beast or killed with a Stab at the Heart or had there been any Poison there it would have killed him had he eaten or drunk it or else he had another kind of Body in Paradise than we have now for I am sure that these things would kill us Consider then how impossible it is that in this fallen and apostate State God should preserve Man immortal without working Miracles every minute Mens passions are now very unruly and they fall out with one another and will kill one another if they can of which the World had a very early example in Gain who slew his Brother Abel and all those Murders and bloody Wars since that day put this matter out of doubt Now this can never be prevented unless God should make our Bodies invulnerable which a body of flesh and blood cannot be without a Miracle some die by their own hands others by wild Beasts others by evil Accidents and there are so many ways of destroying these brittle Bodies that it is the greatest wonder that they last so long and yet Adam's body in Paradise was as very Earth and as brittle as our Bodies are but all this had been prevented had men continued innocent they would not then have quarrelled or fought they would not have died by their own hands nor drunk themselves into a Feavour nor over-loaded Nature with riotous Excesses there had been no wild Beasts to devour no infectious Air or poisonous Herbs and then the Tree of Life would have repaired all the decays of Nature
make up that defect and when we have done with the World to give up ourselves wholly to the service of God We should now be very importunate in our Prayers to God that for the Merits and Intercession of Christ he would freely pardon all the Sins and Frailties and Errors of our past life and give us such a comfortable hope and sence of his love to us as may support us in the hour of Death and sweeten the terrors and agonies of it We should meditate on the great love of God in sending Christ into the World to save Sinners and contemplate the height and depth and length and breadth of that love of God which passeth all humane Understanding We should represent to ourselves the wonderful condescension of the Son of God in becoming Man his amazing goodness in dying for Sinners the Just for the Unjust to reconcile us to God And when we have warmed our Souls with such thoughts as these we should break forth into raptures and extasies of Devotion in the praise of our Maker and Redeemer Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto him that sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever 5 Revel 12 13. And besides other reasons which makes this a very proper Preparation for Death this accustoms us to the work and employment of the next World for Heaven is a life of Devotion and Praise there we shall see God and admire and adore him and sing eternal Halelujahs to him and therefore nothing can so dispose and prepare us for Heaven as to have our hearts ready tuned to the praises of God ravished with his love transported with his glory and perfections and swallowed up in the most profound and humble adorations of him 3. Thus when we are going into another World it becomes us most to have our thoughts there to consider what a blessed place that is where we shall be delivered from all the fears and sorrows and temptations of this World where we shall see God and the Blessed Jesus and converse with Angels and glorified Spirits and live an endless life without fear of dying where there is nothing but perfect love and peace no cross interests and factions to contend with no storms to ruffle or discompose our joy and rest to Eternity where there is no pain no sickness no labour no care to refresh the weariness or to repair the decays of a mortal Body not so much as the image of Death to interrupt our constant enjoyments where there is a perpetual day and an eternal calm where our Souls shall attain their utmost perfection of Knowledge and Vertue where we shall serve God not with dull and sleepy and unaffecting Devotion but with piercing thoughts with life and vigour with ravishment and transport in a word where there are such things as neither eye hath seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive These are proper thoughts for a man who is to compose himself for Death not to think of the pale and ghastly looks of Death when he shall be wrapt up in his Winding-sheet not to think of the dark and melancholly retirements of the Grave where his Body must rot and putrifie till it be raised up again immortal and glorious but to lift up his eyes to Heaven to view that lightsom and happy Country with Moses to ascend up into the Mount and take a prospect of the heavenly Canaan whither he is going This will conquer even the natural aversions to Death and make us with St. Paul desirous to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all make it as easie to us to leave this World for Heaven as it is to remove into a more pleasant and wholesome Air or into a more convenient and beautiful House so easie so pleasant will it be to die with such thoughts as these about us This indeed ought to be the constant Exercise of the Christian Life it is fit for all times and for all persons and without some degree of it it is impossible to conquer the Temptations of the World or to live in the practice of divine and heavenly Vertues But this ought to be the constant business or entertainment rather of those happy men who have lived long enough in the World to take a fair leave of it who have run through all the Scenes and Stages of Humane Life and have now Death and another World in view and prospect And it is this makes a Retirement from the World so necessary or very useful not meerly to ease our bodily labours and to get a little rest from business to dissolve in sloth and idleness or to wander about to seek a Companion or to hear News or to talk Politicks or to find out some way to spend time which now lies upon their hands and is more uneasy and troublesom to them than business was This is a more dangerous state and does more indispose them for a happy Death than all the cares and troubles of an active Life but we must retire from this World to have more leisure and greater opportunities to prepare for the next to adorn and cultivate our Minds and dress our Souls like a Bride who is adorned to meet her Bridegroom When men converse much in this World and are distracted with the cares and business of it when they live in a crowd of Customers or Clients and are hurried from their Shops to the Exchange or Custom-house or from their Chambers to the Bar and when they have discharged one obligation are pressed hard by another that at night they have hardly Spirits left to say their Prayers nor any time for them in the morning and the Lord's Day itself is thought more proper for Rest and Refreshment than Devotion I say what dull cold apprehensions must such men have of another World And after all the care we can take how will this World insinuate itself into our affections when it imploys our time and thoughts when our whole business is buying and selling and driving good Bargains and making Conveyances and Settlements of Estates How will this disorder our Passions occasion Feuds and Quarrels give us a tincture of Pride Ambition Covetuousness that there is work enough after a busie life even for very good men to wash out these stains and pollutions and to get the tast and relish of this World out of their mouths and to revive and quicken the sence of GOD and of another World. This is a sufficient reason for such men as I observed before to think when it is time to leave off and if not wholly to withdraw from the World yet to contract their business and to have the command of it that they may have more leisure to take care of their Souls before they have so near a call and
our whole time for we have no time but what is present and as one minute succeeds another still we must improve it to the best purposes that is we can do but one thing all our lives and the best way then would be to turn Hermits and sequester ourselves from the World and Humane Conversation The answer to this objection will teach us what it is to improve our present time and how it must be done Now 1. I allow the objection so far that if a man have mis-spent great part of his life have contracted great guilt and powerful habits of Vice the chief and almost the only thing such a man can do is to bewail his sins before God and with earnest and repeated importunities to beg his Pardon to live in a state of Penance and Mortification to deny himself the pleasures and comforts of Life till he has in some measure subdued his love to Sin and regained the command and government of his Passions and has recovered the peace of his Mind and some good hopes that God has forgiven him and received him into favour for the sake of Christ thus he ought to do and when he is made thoroughly sensible of his sins and the danger he is in he can do no otherwise while he is terrified with the fears of Hell he has little stomach to the necessary affairs and business of Life much less to the mirth and pleasures of it but this is such an interruption to the ordinary and regular course of life as a fit of sickness is which confines us to our Bed or to our Chamber and makes us incapable of minding any thing but the recovery of our health and when this is the case then indeed the care of our Souls is the only necessary business and imployment of our time 2. But when this is not the case the wise improvement of our present time does not confine us always to be upon our knees or doing something which has a direct and immediate aspect upon God and another World for the state of this World will not admit of that but he imploys his time well who divides it among all the affairs and and offices of life between this World and the next and imploys the several portions of his time in things fit and proper for such a season who begins and ends the day with adoring his Maker and Redeemer blessing him for all his mercies both temporal and spiritual begging the pardon of all his sins the protection of his Providence the assistance of his Grace and then minds his secular affairs with Justice and Righteousness eats and drinks with Sobriety and Temperance does all good offices for men as occasion serves and if he have any spare time improves it for the encrease of his knowledge by reading and meditating on the Scriptures or other useful Books or refreshes himself with the innocent and chearful conversation of his Friends or such other Diversions as are not so much a loss and expence of time as a necessary relaxation of the Mind to recruit our Spirits and to make us more fit either for Business or Devotion but then on days set apart for the more publick and solemn acts of Worship Religion is his chief Employment for that is the proper work of the day to worship God and to examine the state of his own Soul to learn his Duty more perfectly and to affect his mind with such a powerful sence of God and another World as may arm him against all Temptations when he returns to this World again This is to improve our present time well to observe the proper times and seasons of action and to do what is fit and proper for such seasons never to do any thing which is evil and as for the several kinds of good actions to do what particular times and seasons require Thus we may give a good account of our whole time even of our most loose and vacant hours which it becomes us to do though we were certain to live many years but does more nearly concern us when our time is so uncertain 4. Since our lives are so very uncertain this ought to cure an anxious care and solicitude for times to come we may live many years though our lives are uncertain and therefore a provident care becomes us but we may die also very quickly and why then should we disturb ourselves with To-morrow's cares much less with some remoter possibilities Hast thou at any time an ill prospect before thee of private or publick Calamities Do the Storms gather are the Clouds black and lowring and charged with Thunder and ready to break over thy head Shelter thy self as well as thou canst make all prudent provisions for a Storm because thou maist live to see it but be not too much dismaied and terrified with a Storm at a distance for thy head may be laid low enough and out of its reach before it breaks and then all this trouble and perplexity is in vain Many such examples have I seen of men disturbed with ill Presages of what was coming which besides that these things did not happen which they expected or were not so black and dismal as their affrighted fancy painted them if they had come they were very safe first and got out of their way I do not intend by this to comfort men against foreseen Evils that they may die before they come which is a small comfort to most men when it may be Death is the most formidable thing in the Evils they fear but since our lives are uncertain and we may die and never see the Evils we fear it is unreasonable to be as much distracted with them as if they were present and certain The uncertainty of future Events is one reason why we ought not to be anxious and solicitous about them and the uncertainty of our lives is another and what is so very uncertain ought not to be the object of any great concern or passion 5. For the same reason we ought not to be greatly afraid of men nor to put our trust and confidence in them because their lives are very uncertain they may not be able to hurt us when we are most apprehensive of danger from them nor to help us when we need them most This is the Psalmist's argument 146 Psal. 3 4. Put not your trust in princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help His breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish 2 Isai. 22. Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of Men especially great and powerful men may do us a great deal of hurt and may do us a great deal of good and therefore common prudence will teach us by all wise and honest arts to gain their favour and to avoid all unreasonable and needless provocations but yet at best they are such brittle Creatures that they can be
and Sense to govern our bodily Appetites and Passions to grow indifferent to the Pleasures of Sense to use them for the refreshment and necessities of Nature but not to be over-curious about them not to be fond of enjoying them nor troubled for the want of them never to indulge ourselves in unlawful Pleasures and to be very temperate in our use of lawful ones to be sure we must take care that the Spiritual part that the sense of God and of Religion be always predominant in us and this will be a principle of Life in us a principle of divine Sensations and Joys when this Body shall tumble into Dust. VI. If Death be our putting off these Bodies then the Resurrection from the Dead is the Re-union of Soul and Body the Soul does not die and therefore cannot be said to rise again from the Dead but it is the Body which like Seed falls into the Earth and springs up again more beautiful and glorious at the Resurrection of the Just. To believe the Resurrection of the Body or of the Flesh and to believe another Life after this are two very different things the Heathens believed a future State but never dreamt of the Resurrection of the Body which is the peculiar Article of the Christian Faith. And yet it is the Resurrection of our Bodies which is our Victory and Triumph over Death for Death was the Punishment of Adam's sin and those who are in a separate state still suffer the Curse of the Law Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Christ came to deliver us from this Curse by being made a Curse for us that is to deliver us from Death by dying for us But no man can be said to be delivered from Death till his body rise again for part of him is under the power of Death still while his body rots in the Grave nay he is properly in a state of Death while he is in a state of Separation of Soul and Body which is the true notion of Death And therefore St. Paul calls the Resurrection of the Body the destroying Death 1 Cor. 15. 25 26. He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet the last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death That is by the Resurrection of the Dead as appears from the whole scope of the place and is particularly expressed 54 55 c. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass that saying which is written Death is swallowed up in victory O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but blessed be God who hath given us the victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. This is the perfection and consummation of our reward when our Bodies shall be raised incorruptible and glorious when Christ shall change our vile Bodies and make them like to his own most glorious Body I doubt not but good men are in a very happy state before the Resurrection but yet their happiness is not complete for the very state of Separation is an imperfect state because a separate Soul is not a perfect Man a Man by the original Constitution of his Nature consists of Soul and Body and therefore his perfect happiness requires the united glory and happiness of both parts of the whole Man. Which is not considered by those who cannot apprehend any necessity why the Body should rise again since as they conceive the Soul might be as completely and perfectly happy without it But yet the Soul would not be an intire and perfect Man for a Man consists of Soul and Body a Soul in a state of Separation how happy soever otherwise it may be has still this mark of God's displeasure on it that it has lost its body and therefore the Reunion of our Souls and Bodies has at least this advantage in it that it is a perfect restoring of us to the Divine Favour that the badge and memorial of our Sin and Apostacy is done away in the Resurrection of our Bodies and therefore this is called the Adoption viz. the Redemption of our Bodies 8. Rom. 23. For then it is that God publickly owns us for his Sons when he raises our dead Bodies into a glorious and immortal Life And besides this I think we have no reason to doubt but the Reunion of Soul and Body will be a new addition of Happiness and Glory for though we cannot guess what the pleasures of glorified Bodies are yet sure we cannot imagine that when these earthly Bodies are the instruments of so many pleasures a spiritual and glorified Body should be of no use A Soul and Body cannot be vitally united but there must be a sympathy between them and receive mutual impressions from each other and then we need not doubt but that such glorified Bodies will highly minister though in a way unknown to us to the pleasures of a divine and perfect Soul will infinitely more contribute to the divine pleasures of the Mind then these earthly Bodies do to our sensual pleasures That all who have this hope and expectation may as St. Paul speaks earnestly groan within themselves waiting for the adoption even the redemption of our bodies 8. Rom. 23. This being the day of the Marriage of the Lamb this consummates our Happiness when our Bodies and Souls meet again not to disturb and oppose each other as they do in this World where the Flesh and the Spirit are at perpetual Enmity but to live in eternal Harmony and to heighten and inflame each others Joys Now this consideration that Death being a putting off these Bodies the Resurrection of the Dead must be the raising our Bodies into a new and immortal Life and the Reunion of them to our Souls suggests many useful thoughts to us For This teaches us how we are to use our Bodies how we are to prepare them for Immortality and Glory Death which is the separation of Soul and Body is the punishment of Sin and indeed it is the cure of it too for Sin is such a Leprosie as cannot be perfectly cleansed without pulling down the House which it has once infected But if we would have these Bodies raised up again immortal and glorious we must begin the Cleansing and Purification of them here We must be sanctified throughout both in body soul and spirit 1 Thess. 5. 23. Our Bodies must be the Temples of the Holy Ghost must be holy and consecrated places 1 Cor. 6. 19. must not be polluted with filthy Lusts if we would have them rebuilt again by the Divine Spirit after the desolations which Sin hath made Thus St. Paul tells us at large 8. Rom. 10 11 12 13. And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness That is that divine and holy Nature which we receive from