and Duties of it Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me and ye shall find rest to your Souls I shall premise a few cautions to prevent any mistake in this matter and the better to state and explain it Then show how we may by the help and means of Religion attain to this Rest Peace and Tranquility of Mind 1. First then I do not pretend that Religion and Virtue will set Men free from all the evils of this World and be a protection against any manner of outward Troubles or Calamities ever falling upon us This cannot be For Man is born to Trouble as the Sparks fly upwards Job 5.7 They are a great many of them natural and necessary and unavoidable and God must alter the nature of Things and the nature of the World and work perpetual Miracles to free us always from them to have our Bodies subject to no Diseases and Indispositions our Estates subject to no Losses and Casualities or Children or Friends not subject to Death or to be taken away from us this is impossible and what no good Man must expect that the Rain or Drought should not sometimes spoil his Corn the Sea shipwrack his Goods or Vessel the Fire burn his House as well as anothers these common misfortunes which happen alike to all and a great many Losses from the fraud and injustice of others as well as abundance of natural evils arising from the Mechanism of our selves and the World these the most Virtuous cannot expect to be exempted from but like Travellers through this World they must all pass thro' the common Road with others and sometimes meet with bad and unpleasant way and now and then with a shower that may fall upon 'em but the Religious Man is however much better provided against those against the common and unavoidable evils of life than another who is but equally subject to them his Mind is Armed against all the darts of Fortune and they shall not enter so deep nor smart so grievously as to the wicked he has something within to support him under all the Calamities and Afflictions of this World a good God a good Conscience and a good Prospect and Hopes of Heaven when a wicked Man has none of those to keep him up but must wholly sink and fall under them The one will have the Peace of his Mind and a Comfort within that shall pour Oyl and Balsam into all the Wounds of Fortune and make Afflictions more easie and tolerable but the other will increase the smart of them by his wickedness that will then lie heavier upon him when his Spirit is oppressed with other troubles the load of those and of his sins both will be insupportable to him and when his mind is sore by its inward guilt every hard thing from without will more pinch and gall him A good Man may keep this Peace of Mind under any Worldly afflictions but a bad Man cannot 2. Neither will Religion make all things equal as to the outward Happiness of this life arising from Mens different States and Conditions and unequal Circumstances in this World It may be allowed that there is a proper and real good in the Plenty Riches and Conveniences of life and that a good Man is not quite so happy that wants them as if he had 'em but they might be an accession a small Addition to his more true and greater Happiness of Vertue tho' that be infinitely more Great and Valuable and Desirable yet I do not know that Religion takes away or disallows the other we may therefore both Lawfully Desire and Endeavour to make our outward Circumstances in this World as good and easie and comfortable as we can within the bounds of Vertue and 't is both Natural and Lawful to do it and it borders I doubt upon Hypocrisie or Superstition to pretend the contrary and is always confuted by a contrary Desire and Practice in those who have talked otherwise But still a good Man can be contented and easie in a very mean and strait Condition if Providence allots this to him and he will not Disquiet or Disturb himself for what he sees others enjoy if God sees not sit for him to have them and tho he can allow a lesser good and a proper use and conveniency and some small Happiness perhaps as to this life to belong to those outward things in respect of the Wants and Necessities and the State we are in here which made Aristotle and the Peripateticks put the Externa Bona into the Ingredients of compleat Happiness yet he can be very Happy with a few of those as knowing that Man's Life consisteth not in abundance as Christ says Luk. 12.15 and that a few things will suffice nature and having Food and Raiment which is the Apostles as well as Natures competency he can be content and make up a Happiness to himself out of the better and more essential Parts and Ingredients of it to wit Vertue and Wisdom and a good Mind without those Appendages and Ornaments Trimmings and Garnishings of it which we call outward Happiness and Prosperity I am not for maintaining that Stoical Paradox That a virtuous Man was thereby Rich and a King and every thing that 's Great They might as well have said also he is always Strong and Healthfull tho 't is plain he may be both Sickly and Poor and his greatest Virtues may take away neither of those evils and their contraries may be allowed to be both goods in a lower Sence and so Desir'd by us but he will be Happier a Thousand times without those than without his Vertue they can never make him truly Happy without that but he may be Happy without those by the Peace and Comfort the Firmness and Goodness of his own Mind altho' if he had them too they might add something to his present Happiness and Good Condition this I will not Cynically deny Nor yet 3. That Religion will quite alter his bodily Temper any more than his Worldly Circumstances but a good Man may labour under an unhappy Temper and ill Crasis and Disposition of Blood and Humours His Wise and Vertuous Soul may male habitare be lodged not only in a Deformed but a Sickly and Unhealthfull or otherwise ill-framed Body A natural Sulphur and Choler may lodge in his Blood that may be too apt to Fire and heat him or too much dull and heavy Phlegm may clog his Spirits and make them Listless and Unactive and not rise to Warmth and fervor in his Religious Duties the Salts that keep the Humours from putrefying may make them too Sharp or Sowre and apt to make a Temper too Fretfull and Peevish or a black melancholy Humour may be thus produced and become Predominant that will disorder the Spirits and fill the Head and other Parts with dark Vapours and irregular Ferments and draw a Cloud of Darkness and Disconsolateness over the Brain and even the Soul it self Now Religion will not nor cannot
through and steal But lay up for your selves Treasures in Heaven where neither Moth nor Rust doth corrupt and where Thieves do not break through and steal THis most Excellent Sermon of our Blessed Saviour as in every thing it gives us the highest and the noblest precepts of Vertue that are above all the Morals of the wisest Heathen and far excell the best rules of the greatest Masters in Philosophy which might have convinced Greece and Athens it self that he must be if not the Son of God yet some great and extraordinary Person sent from above that without Travel abroad or Education at home unless in a poor Trade should outdo even Socrates or the more admired Moralists amongst 'em so he has all along adapted 'em to Humane Nature and our present State and Circumstances in this World which was a thing that they were deficient in for as they often were too short in their precepts and much below the things so at other times they were as much too high and gave precepts that were too big and not at all fitted to the size and scantling of our present State or the make of Humane Nature they were not only for wisely Moderating and Governing but quite rooting all Passions and Affections whatever out of their wise man which was to make him not a Man or such a Creature with such Faculties and Powers as God thought for wise reasons fit to do this was not to improve but destroy Human Nature and to set Vertue beyond its pitch and out of its reach which our Saviour who knew our Frame and our outmost Capacities has never done they went so far in their rants about the contempt of this World and despising riches as to commend him that foolishly threw them into the Sea that they might be no hindrance to his deeper Philosophizing Now this as it betrayed a great weakness in him that could not otherwise better use 'em so 't is Calculating Virtue not for this World but for some other Eutopian Meridian the making it not Useful and Comfortable but Destructive of our present State and Condition in this World and tho our Blessed Saviour both by his Life and his precepts showed as great contempt of the things of this World as ever any person did and has given the best Arguments that can be not to be sollicitous for outward things nor take any thought for the Morrow in the latter part of this Chapter by trusting in the Divine Providence and being especially carefull about better things the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness yet he has no where told us that these are inconsistent and that a Man must throw away his Estate and renounce all his worldly goods as well as the Pomps and Vanities of this World if he will become a Christian and go to Heaven this indeed is said to be the Heresie of Pelagius in which he was not likely to have very many Followers and tho several places of Scripture tell us how hardly they that have Riches shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mark 10.23 and that it is easier for a Camel to go through the Eye of a Needle than for a Rich Man is enter into the Kingdom of Heaven v. 25. which is all meant of them that trust in Riches v. 24. that we cannot serve God and Mammon bids us not love the World nor the things that are in the World for if any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2.15 yet they all import no more and so will be fairly understood by this excellent direction of our Saviour that I am now to discourse of Lay not up for your selves Trusures Neither is that purely a Negative an Universal forbidding us to lay up any Treasures upon Earth for if we do not that in some measure we are not guilty only of great Imprudence but even of Infidelity too If any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own House he hath denied the Faith and is worse than an Insidel 1 Tim. 5.8 not to make provision for ones own Off-spring and Children is to be more Unnatural than the Heathens nay than the very Fowls and the most Ravenous Beasts and not to supply an Aged Helpless Parent is to be guilty of that which the Heathens counted the most infamous Ingratitude nay if by an honest Industry and lawful Profession we do not some way or other make our selves serviceable to the publick and able to procure some good to the whole of which we are parts we are like dead and useless Members that serve neither for Life nor Motion nor the conveyance of Blood and Spirits and as in the Natural body so also in the civil 't is impossible to maintain either its Life or Strength unless some greater parts are Replenished with a larger abundance of Blood and Spirits and there be a general Circulation and lesser conveyance of 'em to every part Neither Government nor the World could subsist so long as God intends it if Men should lay aside all prudent care about the things of this World all would be put into a dead Hand and that would quickly make a dead Body if it were not Lawfull for some Men to Trade and grow Rich the present state of this World makes this to be necessary and is utterly inconsistent with general Vows of Poverty and as a Man may Lawfully work for his livelihood and according to the Apostles Rule He that will not work neither should he eat 2. Thes 3.10 without breaking our Saviour's command John 6.27 Labour not for the Meat that perisheth but for the Meat which endureth unto everlasting Life so he may by prudent and honest ways take care of his Worldly Concerns and add to his Estate and grow Rich without any Violation of our Saviour's Rule Ley not up for your selves Treasures on Earth for those Treasures on Earth are not of themselves Evil and may be matter of very great Vertues such as the rich Men are particularly charged with 1 I'im 6.17 18 19. Charge them that are rich in this World that they do good that they be Rich in good Works ready to Distribute willing to Communicate laying up in store for themselves a good Foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life which it seems they may be made the means of attaining so that by these Negatives is meant only a comparative command that we rather lay up to our selves Treasures in Heaven than in Earth that we be more carefull for the one than the other not that one is forbidden by the other but to be preferred before it as we have the like manner of expression most frequently in Scripture Prov. 8.10 Receive my Instruction and not Silver and Knowledge rather than Gold so Mat. 9.13 I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice i. e. rather than Sacrifice God did so much value inward and real Righteousness before outward Rites and
from Heaven 2 Cor. 5.2 What more fit than that the materials of this house should be taken out of its former body tho' greatly improved and advanced as I shall show immediately who can tell what proper pleasures God shall fit for our bodies and make them such noble Organs for the Soul as shall be mighty useful to it and who knows whether that can enjoy all that alone without the body as with it and that there is not some new faculty or satisfaction resulting from its animating and being united to a body the Scripture representing the happiness of the other state not to be compleat till the general Resurrection God alone can tell what faculties and powers are fit for his Creatures in any state and while we are in this we can know no more what is proper for us in the other than an Embryo not yet born can conceive what it shall need when it comes into the world were it not absolutely necessary yet it seems very agreeable to Justice to have both the body and soul that were partners in Sin or Vertue to be sharers in the rewards of it And if Christ the Captain of our Salvation is to be perfect Man as well as perfect God in Heaven and his glorious body is probably to be the visible Shechinah of Heaven it self the bodies of all good Christians ought to rise and attend him and be partakers with him of the same Glory that so human Nature even in its weakest and frailest part may eternally triumph over death and the grave and over him who had the power of both 5. And Lastly To take off the incredibility of the Resurrectionn let us consider how far the body that is raised is to be the same with that which is buried and corrupted We must not be too rigorous and exact in insisting upon the same body if we be we cannot be said to have the same body two days together Our bodies are always in flow and several parts of them are always going off by insensible Transpiration and others come in the place of them like a River we call it the same tho' its Water be always running and passing away and scarce any drop of it be exactly the same the next Tide or as we call that the same flame of a Candle all the while it is burning which yet is wasted every moment and supplied with other new parts of oyl so we have the same body in our old Age that we had in our Youth And this very body of ours that was some time animated by our Souls that this shall rise again the Scripture is too plain to have it denied as it is by the Socinians the very word Resurrection supposes it to be in some sense the same body and they which rise again are said to be the same that were asleep and lay in their graves so that if we had quite another new body given us at the day of Judgment this might be said to be new made or created but not to rise again But yet it is not necessary that every part of matter which made up this Body of ours at our Death and was buried in the same Grave should go to the making up of our raised bodies It is sufficient if this Earthly body of ours which we had in this World be the seed or seminal body as it were of the Resurrection body out of some part of which it is as truly raised as the new Corn or Fruit is out of the Corn or Kernell which was set or sowed so the Apostle gives us an account of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.36 37 38. in answer to that question How are the dead raised up or with what bodies do they come i. e. how are those whose parts have been so variously mixt with other bodies and turned into the substance perhaps of other men whose very bodies are again to be raised how shall every part of these men be raised up when perhaps several men might have parts of the same body and therefore in the Resurrection whose body shall it be since many had some of it to be their body and with what body shall every one come if it must be exactly the same and yet that is so very hard if not some time impossible To this the Apostle answers Thou Fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die and that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body which shall be but bare Grain it may chance of Wheat or some other Grain But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him and to every seed his own body God does give every Man his own body but not so exactly the same as not to be at all altered but as a building is the same which is repaired tho' with a great many other materials and as an ear of Corn is the same with its seed tho' it has taken in a good quantity of the moisture of the Earth and turned it into its own body Those who have curiously examined the Anatomy of Plants and Seeds tell us that in the little Gemm or Eye of the Seed is contained the whole draught and the perfect Stamina of the Plant with its bark and leaves and fruit and all the lines of it exactly drawn in little which are after to be fill'd up and extended by the heat of the Sun and moisture of the Earth And if so little a seed or kernel can contain all the parts of a large stalk or great tree who knows how much of our present bodies may be sufficient to raise the same bodies out of again and how small a part of this corruptible matter may be the Embryo as it were of our Heavenly bodies It is certain these our bodies shall be so much altered that that which is sown in corruption shall be raised in incorruption and that which is now a natural body shall be then a spiritual not that it shall be turned into a spirit and lose its corporeal nature but that it shall be refined and made pliable to the Soul and Spirit and to all its motions and stand in no need of those things that belong to the animal life And yet it may still be the same body for all those new modes and qualities as a Jewel is the same substance of the Earth which was once a common fluid and is now turned into an Orient Pearl and the most clear Crystal Glass is the same matter that was before Sand and Ashes The best Philosophy tells us there is no specifick difference in matter but it is the same in substance tho' its outward figure colour and other accidents be altered which are but several modifications of the same matter and I can conceive God as easily to change these our mortal corruptible bodies into immortal and incorruptible ones as he turns the substance that every Animal eats into blood and spirits and the moisture and filth of the Earth that nourishes every flower and fruit into the
and very miserable if our meer missing of them makes us so and if we could attain them and become masters of them we should yet find our selves disappointed and should not meet with that Happiness that we expected from them Had we all we could wish for or desire in this World yet we should not find that satisfaction and compleat Enjoyment we imagined before-hand in any condition for thus Experience convinces us and convinces all Mankind that there is still something wanting to make us Happy whatsoever we enjoy of this World and how much soever we have of it there is so much emptiness in all the things of it so much mixture and allay of evil with good it is so unagreeable to the larger capacities of our Souls and so short of filling and satisfying them that Solomon pronounced of all Worldly things that they were Vanity and Vexation of Spirit Eccles 1.14 and this is not a Philosophical rant or a discontented Reflection or an Hyperbolical saying but a strict and certain truth founded upon the best Experience and the wisest Observation of things for no Man whoever set his Heart upon the things of this World found that contentment and full satisfaction in them that he expected but met with more cares and troubles in the pursuing them than they were worth and pierced himself through with a great many sorrows and anxieties by being over desirous of them and if he gained them with all his labour and toil yet was as far from true Happiness as before for as the Prophet elegantly expresses it The Bed is shorter than that a Man can stretch himself on it and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it Isa 28.20 Worldly things are too narrow short and imperfect and are no way fitted to make us compleatly happy something will still be wanting that we call good and some evil will be present and mixed with what we enjoy that will allay and embitter it To seek for Happiness in this World is to seek for the living among the dead It is not here it is risen it is above it is only in Heaven and in God and Religion and to be enjoyed no where else Religion raises our Minds to a nobler and truer Happiness than any in this World and it helps us to as good degrees of it as we are capable of at present by taking off our hopes and desires and expectations of it as to Worldly things and curing us of too much concern and anxiety about them and making us indifferent and casie and contented whatever our present Circumstances are in this World Which is the 4. Fourth thing by which it procures and affords this ease and tranquility of Mind that we are speaking of Most of the uneasinesses of life are caused by a sollicitude about Worldly things proceeding from an immoderate love and an over great Opinion of them as if our Happiness lay in possessing a great abundance of them This is the root of that Covetousness and Ambition which make us inordinately desire Riches and Honours which two are very restless and uneasy Vices and fill our lives with infinite Trouble and Disquietude and make our Minds always Uneasie and Discontented He is a very Happy Man who is easie and satisfied in his present Circumstances and has learnt with St. Paul in whatsoever state he is therewith to be content Phil. 4.11 who hath made such true Judgment of Worldly things that he has no great Opinion of them nor does admire or think there is very much in them but having the Conveniences and Accommodations of life can eat of his own little morsel and drink out of his own Brook with as much Pleasure and Satisfaction as if he were to take from the greatest Heap or drink of the greatest River or be Entertained with all the Luxurious Plenty and Ambitious State of the Rich and Great ones who with all their Enjoyments have a Thousand times more trouble and uneasinesses than the other in a more moderate condition For 't is certain the way to Contentment and Happiness is rather to abate our desires than to fill 'em and the more we raise and heighten these the more uneasie we shall always be Vain Opinion and weak Imagination set a false value and estimate upon the outward differences amongst Men but I doubt not but they may be all equally Happy and that Previdence has distributed good and evil with a more equal and impartial hand than we imagine and that those of low condition enjoy as much Happiness in this World as those of the highest The difference is not made by Circumstances but by temper of Mind and by keeping our desires within moderate bounds and not being anxious or sollicitous or uneasie for what we do not enjoy but in being contented and well pleased with whatever Providence allots to us when we bring our selves to this we shall be easie and happy and free our selves from those immoderate desires carking cares and anxious sollicitudes about the things of this World which pierce us through with a Thousand sorrows and destroy the Ease and Tranquility of our Minds Now to do this we must be taught and convinced by Religion that Happiness lies not in outward things and be cured of the contrary weak Fancy and Opinion that makes us so immoderately desire 'em and be so anxiously concerned about 'em to the loss even of that Rest and Peace of Mind that we might otherwise have without them 5. Religion teaches us to govern our Passions and lower Inclinations and so to keep them from disturbing us and breaking the Peace and Tranquility of our Minds One of the greatest causes of uneasiness to us and what is most contrary to this Rest and Tranquility we are seeking after is the Disorder of our Passions and the Disturbance and Disquiet they give us Anger ruffles us and puts us into a storm and destroys that smooth calm and sedate Temper that meekness puts us in Envy preys upon it self and is inwardly corroded with its own sharp and sowre humours Pride swells its self with its own inward poyson and is blown up with an inward Vapour that Pains and Distends it and makes it very uneasie even whilst 't is very conceited of its self Till these inward Diseases and Indispositions and Commotions of Mind are cured in great measure by the Prescriptions and Directions of Religion a Man can have no ease and quiet in his own Breast for while he is under the power of any of these or indeed of any lower or bodily Inclination such as Lust Anger brutal Rage or brutal Concupiscence and has not mastered those natural Corruptions nor brought those Boisterous and Head-strong Passions under some Government and Subjection to the Laws of Wisdom and Decency Vertue and Religion they will run him into a Thousand Mischiefs Follies and Inconveniencies and he will never have true Peace and Tranquility in his own Mind 'T is the great business therefore
another life to succeed this wherein we shall receive as we have behaved our selves here That the Soul when it is releas'd from the Body and puts on a thinner and a lighter Vehicle passes to the vast Regions of Eternity and there has a very different life from what it had here when naked of all earthy matter and not wanting any of the Conveniencies of its mortal state its thoughts are more vigorous and sprightly and it understands more clearly and wills more freely and acts more nimbly and expeditely and unrestrainedly He could tell us how it feels it self when it is first loosed from the Body and strip'd naked of its fleshly Cloathing whither it will betake it self next and to what place it is convey'd what reception it has at its first coming into the other World and how it is provided for when like a stranger it arrives at that unknown place He would acquaint us how it was brought before the bar of God and a Divine Judgment immediately pass'd upon it and so was Sentenc'd to its sinal state and irreversible doom according to what it had done in the flesh whether it were good or evil and therefore in the 2. Second place he would acquaint us with the Happy and Blessed state of good Souls there If he were Lazarus as was desired here by the rich man one that lay in Abraham's Bosom and tasted of the Joys and Pleasures that are at God's right hand what a ravishing account would he give us of those things which no Eye upon Earth hath seen nor Ear heard neither hath it enter'd into the heart of any Man who hath not enjoy'd 'em to concieve what they are He that had been an Inhabitant of the new Jerusalem the Glorious City and Beautifull Palace of the great God what a Description would he give of all the Glories of it of all the Riches and Heavenly Treasures that are there laid up of all the Crowns that are worn by every Citizen there of all the mansions that are there for every Soul of all that blest Society of Angels and glorisied Spirits of all the Orders of Cherubims and Seraphims and all the Armies of Martyrs of the Glorious Throne of the Heavenly King and of the Lamb that sits upon it of the lustre and brightness that shines in every place and the Joy and Gladness that dances in every heart and sparkles in every eye and appears in every face of the great Complacency and Delight that they have in one another and the most inflamed Love and Charity with which they meet their fellow Saints how they are infinitely Happy in themselves and double all their Happiness by the sweet relish and tast they have of that of others as well as their own how they live all in Raptures and Extasies of Joy and have their Souls overflowed with those Rivers of Pleasure that are at God's right hand and for ever stream from that Spring and Fountain of all good In a word that they enjoy such Pleasures and Delights that he which selt 'em one moment would be willing to endure all the Racks and the Tortures of the cruelest Persecutors that he might but once tast of 'em again That those short afflictions are not worthy to be compared with them that the greatest Pleasures and Delights in this World are but saint and empty shadows and poor resemblances of 'em and that he long to be enjoying 'em again and that he is impatient to be so long absent from ' em 3. A Messenger from the dead would testisie also of the Misery and grievous Torments of Men wicked and sinfull Lazarus that had seen the slames of Hell tho' asar off or Dives that had felt and been in the midst of them would give a Tragical description of that place of horrors he would tell us what a Dismal and Disconsolate place is that dark Prison where they are shut up with hellish Fiends and accursed Spirits who affright and insult over the wretched Soul how they are there bound hand and foot with chains of darkness not able to move any way for the least ease nor call to any Friend to pity or comfort 'em how they are always sinking into a dark and bottomless Pit and lie for ever scalding in a Furnace of fire rowling and scorching in a Lake of burning Brunstone where the raging flames with unexpressible pain enter the tender parts and pierce through the Soul with their keenness and sharpness how in the extremity of their Torments the miserable wretches cry out and roar and gnaw their tongues for pain and blaspheme the God of Heaven because of their pains Revel 16.10 11. How with Rage and Fury against themselves cursing their own folly and madness and swallow'd up with bitter despair the remembrance of their own Guilt stings their enraged Conscience and the never dying Worm gnaws and eats at their very hearts and the anger of an Almighty and Incens'd God lies always heavy upon 'em and his wrath presses 'em fore and fills their Souls with all the dreadfull Ideas of sear and despondency and in the midst of all this anguish there is one thing more terrible than all this than all they feel and that is the Apprehension that it shall last for ever that there shall be no end of those Torments that they are not able to bear for one day This this is the bitterest and most sad circumstance that confounds the wretched tormented Soul and sharpens every pain it feels and fills it with unexpressible Horror and Despair that it must endure all this to insinite Ages to a boundless and never ending Eternity and that after it has lain many thousand years in that place of Torments it will still have as many to go through as it had at first Oh sad and dreadfull state how grievous and intolerable does it appear to us and how would one that had been in it represent it How if he had but as much Charity as Dives would he warn us not to come into that place of Torments how unwilling would he be to go back to it how loth to end his message and how desirous to give us an Eternal account of them rather than endure ' em And now would a wicked Man be able to resist this message could he stand out against such Arguments as these are would not these cool the heat of his Lusts and damp all the Jollity of his most tempting Vices Would not this spoil all their Charms and sully all their enticing Peauty and Gayety Would not such a Ghostly Messenger appearing before him make his blood chill and his joynts tremble and the heart of the most hardy sinner be afraid at the sight of him when he brought the terrible news to his brethren in wickedness from one with whom they had often laugh'd at Religion and the stories of Hell and another World with whom they had been often merry and that with those very things that they now hear the
most beauteous colour and most delicate tast Cannot he give the Soul a shining and a glorious body even out of this corruptible one as well as he made the Sun and Stars and all those luminous bodies out of the dark and gloomy Chaos Cannot he make our bodies to shine as the Stars of glory as well as the Stars themselves which tho' Heavenly bodies yet are of the same substance with Earthly matter Cannot he make our bodies which are now a clog and burden to the Soul to be but like so many fiery Chariots to carry us up to Heaven or like so many Wings to move us nimbly where-ever we please and fleet us thro' all the Heavenly Regions that are above Cannot he do this as well as he has given Wings to the flame and made that which arises out of smoak and foot to cast forth rays and lustre and mount upwards The glorified bodies of Men or Angels are generally in Scripture compared to flame and light their countenance is then like lightning and their raiment white as snow as the Angel is described Mat. 28.3 and as our Saviour when his body was transfigured his face did shine as the Sun and his raiment was white as the light Mat. 17.2 and so shall the bodies of good Men after the Resurrection be turned into such pure and glorious bodies that they shall raise splendour and beauty all about them which tho' it be a great transmutation yet by many the like instances I have given is neither impossible nor incredible to conceive The bodies indeed of wicked Men will be very much altered and lose their animal and mortal nature but they will be gross and heavy and sink their Souls into the regions of Hell and Darkness they will be like so many dismal and filthy Dungeons to keep the Soul in chains of everlasting Darkness or like so many poisoned shirts like that of Hercules that will scorch and inflame and torture them beyond expression and sticking close to them burn them with poisonous flames and fill them with the perpetual stench of sire and brimstone How the bodies of wicked men may be made the Instruments of torment to their Souls is easie to imagine from the exquisite pains they often give them here from whence we may conceive how they may be contrived to be the dreadfull racks of eternal death where the miserable wretches may be always suffering the pains of death without dying and on which they may be made to lie for ever raging and gnawing their Tongues for pain and blaspheming the God of Heaven because of their pains and their sores to wit of their bodies as they are described Revel 16.10 And here I could stop and offer one thought to those who are so fond and tender of their bodies here who are for indulging them in every Lust and every Pleasure and think Happiness lieth in the mere delights of the body what they will think of having these pretious parts these dear bodies thus eternally and exquisitely tormented for the sake of a few paulcry sins which are but for a moment but having defended and consirmed this article of our Christian Faith the Resurrection of our bodies I must name but one general use of it and that is Let us all of us so live as if we heartily believed it without making any the least doubt in our minds about it let no mists of Infidelity overcast this Faith of ours which as it is certain by Revelation so is far you see from being incredible by reason which was the point I was to consider and make out It is a great satisfaction to ease our thoughts from some difficulties about it and have the understanding as the eye see things clearly without a film over it But these articles of faith are not only for Contemplation and the Entertainment of our reason but like Principles and Theorems in other Sciences they are to be made use of in practice and to be drawn out and improved into use and action no truth in Religion no Article of Faith is worth making out or proving or satisfying our selves about if it be not some way or other usefull to the practice of Religion and be not influential to the making us good and vertuous in our lives but the Resurrection has such a direct and immediate tendency to do this as it carries in it the assurance of a future state both of Soul and Body that if we fully believe it and are undoubtedly perswaded of it it will do its own work and will necessarily promote Vertue and Religion and be effectual upon all our lives did not a secret Scepticism and Insidelity which is the Vice of our Age hinder and defeat the power of it Let the belief of it therefore be firm and unshaken upon our minds and let the efficacy of it be powerfull upon our Lives and Conversations there is nothing more incredible in the thing that our bodies should rise hereafter than that they were once formed and born there may be difficulties perhaps equal in the account of both but as no Man doubts the one so he that well considers will have no reason to dis-believe the other or to think it incredible that God should raise the dead Let it raise us to thoughts and to things above whither Christ is raised and where he sits with his glorious body at God's right hand Let us often ascend thither in our minds now whither we hope to ascend hereafter with our bodies as well as our Souls Let us consider that these Bodies of ours as well as our Souls were made for higher designs and better enjoyments then any here of this World and that they ought to be the subjects of Purity and Vertue now as they are to be of Happiness hereafter The Resurrection will raise our minds to a great many noble thoughts if we throughly consider it and really believe it and I hope we may be satisfied by what has been said The Twelfth Sermon HEB. III. 13. latter part Lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin THE Author of this Epistle advises in this Chapter those Jewish Christians he wrote to to take care that they fell not into that sad state and temper of mind their forefathers were in in the time of Moses Not to harden their heart now as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness v. 8. when tho' they saw the mighty works of God forty years and had daily Miracles before their Eyes and were fed and maintained by them and lived under a constant dispensation of them yet still a spirit of Insidelity and Obstinacy was amongst them and their hearts were hardned and they would not hearken unto God nor obey his voice but were kept out of the good Land by reason of their monstrous and unreasonable belief so it was also in the times of our Saviour when notwithstanding all his many Miracles done before their Eyes they were yet