of the Israelites in the Wilderness of whom God swear that they should not enter into his rest as appears from the application he himself makes of it 3 Heb. 12 13. Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God But exhort one another daily while it is called To day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin This is a plain account of that great Question concerning the length of the Day of Grace Men may out-live the time of Repentance may so harden themselves in sin as to make their Repentance morally impossible but they cannot out-live the Mercies of God to true Penitents This is reason enough to discourage Men from delaying their Repentance and indulging themselves in a vicious course of Life Lest they should be hardned by the deceitfulness of sin and should be forsaken by God but it is no reason to discourage true Penitents from trusting in the Mercy of God how late soever their Repentance be for while we live in this World the door of Grace and Mercy is not shut against true Penitents 3. But yet the reasons of lengthning the Day of Grace and Mercy do not reach beyond this Life This sufficiently appears from what I have already said and for a further confirmation of it I shall add but this one comprehensive Reason viz. That the Grace of the Gospel is confined to the Church on Earth and therefore this Life is the only time to obtain the remission of our Sins and a title to future Glory We shall be finally absolved from all our Sins and rewarded with eternal Life at the Day of Judgment but we must sue out our Pardon and make our Calling and Election sure in this World. The Gospel of Christ which is the Gospel of Grace and contains the promises of Pardon and immortal Life is preached only to Men on Earth and concerns none else For this reason Christ became Man cloathed with flesh and blood as we are that he might be the Saviour of Mankind which he need not have done had not their Salvation been to be wrought in this World for could they have been saved in the next his Grace might have met them soon enough there and therefore at the birth of our Saviour the Angels sang Glory be to God in the highest on earth peace good will towards men 2 Luke 14. The Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross as all Iewish Sacrifices which were Types of the Sacrifice of the Cross were was offered for the expiation of the Sins of living Men or at least considered as living not of the dead He carried his blood into Heaven as the High-Priest did the blood of the Sacrifice into the Holy of Holies there to make expiation and to interceed for us but this Intercession though made in Heaven relates only to Men on Earth as his Sacrifice did The earthly Tabernacle was a Type of the Church on Earth and that only and the Worshippers in it was expiated by Sacrifices There are two Sacraments whereby the Grace of the Gospel is applied to us and which are the ordinary means of Salvation Baptism and the Lord's Supper and they are confined to the Church on Earth and if they have not their effect here they cannot have it in the next World These unite us to Christ as Members of his Body and then the holy Spirit which animates the Body of Christ takes possession of us renews and sanctifies us but if we prove dead and barren Branches in this spiritual Vine if the Censures of the Church do not cut us off from the Body of Christ Death will and then we can never be re-united to him nor saved by him in the next World. Faith in Christ and Repentance from dead Works are the great Gospel-terms of Pardon and Salvation and these are confined to this World there may be something like them in the next World such a Faith as makes the Devils tremble such a Repentance as is nothing else but despairing Agonies and a hopeless and tormenting Remorse but such a Faith as purifies the heart as conquers this present World as brings forth the fruits of Righteousness such a Repentance as reforms our Lives as undoes all our past Sins as redresses the Injuries we have done to our Neighbours and the Scandal we have given to the World such a Faith and such a Repentance which alone are the true Christian Graces of Faith and Repentance are proper only for this Life and can be exercised only in this Life while we have this World to conquer and the Flesh to subdue to the Spirit while we can restore our ill-gotten Riches and set a visible Example of Piety and Vertue From hence it is very evident that no Man who dies in a state of Sin and Impenitence can be saved by Christ and by the Grace of the Gospel in the next World for the whole ministration of Gospel-grace is confined to this Life and if they cannot be saved by Christ I know no other Name whereby they can be saved And thus Death puts an end to all the flattering hopes of Sinners 3. Now if this Life be our only state of trial and probation for Eternity if Death puts a final end to our Day of Grace and time of Working then Death must translate us to an immutable and unchangeable state By this I do not mean that as soon as we go out of these Bodies our Souls will immediately be as happy or miserable as ever they shall be the perfect rewards of good Men are reserved for the Day of Judgment as the final punishments of bad Men are when our Lord shall say to those on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world And to them on the left hand Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels 25 Mat. 34 41. But though the Happiness or Miseries of the next World may increase yet the state can never alter that is if we die in a state of Grace and Favour with God we shall always continue so if we die in a state of Sin under the wrath and displeasure of God there is no altering our state in the other World we must abide under his wrath for ever This is the necessary consequence of what I have already said which all aimed at this point that once dying puts us into an immutable and unchangeable state and therefore I shall wave any further proof of this and only desire you seriously to consider of it 1. Now first since Death puts an end to our Day of Grace and determines our final State for ever and this Death comes but once all Men must confess of what mighty consequence it is to die well that Death find us well disposed and well prepared for another World. Men use their utmost prudence and caution in doing that which can be
the greatest Sinners to Baptism and justifying them by the Blood of Christ and what the Gospel requires of baptized Christians to continue in this justified State In the first case nothing is required but Faith and Repentance upon which account we are so frequently said to be justified by faith not by the deeds of the law to be justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Iesus to be saved by grace thro' faith not of works least any man should boast And I believe upon inquiry it will be found that Justification by Faith always relates to this Baptismal Justification when by Baptism we are received into Covenant with God and into a justified State only for the sake of Christ and through Faith in his Blood which one thing well considered would put an end to most of the Disputes about Justification and about Faith and Works which I cannot explain now but shall only observe that the constant opposition between Justification by the Faith of Christ and Justification by Circumcision and the Works of the Law to the observation of which they were obliged by Circumcision is a manifest proof that Justification by Faith is our Justification by the Faith of Christ in Baptism which is our admission into the Christian Church makes us the Members of Christ and the Children of God which is a state of Grace and Justification as Circumcision formerly made them God's peculiar People in Covenant with him which is the Justification of Circumcision and Justification by Faith and Justification by Circumcision would not be duly opposed if they did not relate to the same kind of Justification that is that Justification which is the immediate effect of our being in Covenant with God. But now when we are justified by a general Repentance and Faith in Christ at Baptism we also vow a conformity to the Death of Christ by dying to sin and walking in newness of life that is we vow an universal Obedience to all the Laws of Righteousness which the Gospel requires of us as Circumcision made them debtors to the whole law which is the reason why the Works of the Law and that Evangelical Righteousness which the Faith of Christ requires of us are so often opposed in this Dispute the one the Righteousness of the Law or of Works the other the Righteousness of Faith and therefore as Circumcision could not justifie those who transgressed the Law no more will Faith justifie those who disobey the Gospel but the righteousness of the law must be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Now the necessary consequence of this is that meer Sorrow for Sin and the meer Vows and Resolutions of Obedience without actual Holiness and Obedience of Life according to the terms and conditions of the Gospel will not save a baptized Christian for meer Sorrow for Sin and Vows of Obedience will be accepted only in Baptism but when we are baptized we must put our Vows in execution or we fall from our Baptismal Grace and Justification and therefore when we relapse into Sin after Baptism no Repentance will be accepted but that which actually reforms our lives for Baptismal Grace is not ordinarily repeated no more than we can repeat our Baptism This I take to be the true meaning of that very difficult place 6 Heb. 4 5 6. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of GOD and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of GOD afresh and put him to open shame This severe passage occasioned some dispute about the Canonical Authority of this Epistle for it was thought that the Apostle here excluded all Men from the benefit of Repentance who fell into sin again after Baptism but it is certain this is not the Apostle's meaning nor do the words import any such Doctrine but his meaning is either that Men who have been baptized and thoroughly instructed in the Christian Religion may sin themselves into an impossibility of Repentance which is the most ordinary interpretation of the words and which sence I gave before of them and is in part the true sence though I think not the whole or that Men after Baptism may fall into such a state as nothing can deliver them out of but Baptismal Grace and Regeneration and since Baptism cannot be repeated the state of such Men is hopeless and desperate according to the terms of the Gospel however God may deal with them by a Soveraign and Prerogative Grace for tho' we can expect and rely on no other Grace but what God has promised in his Gospel yet God does not absolutely confine himself nor must we confine his Grace and this he tells us is the case of all Apostates from the Christian Faith The understanding of this is necessary to my present purpose and therefore I shall briefly explain it 1. That the Apostle here speaks of persons who were baptized is plain from the words Those who were once enlightned the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are those who have been once baptized for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the ancient Writers signifies Baptism as Iustin Martyr himself tells us in his second Apology that Baptism is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Illumination because their minds are enlightned by it and being once enlightned plainly refers it to Baptism which can be administred but once and what follows proves this to be the meaning of it and have tasted of the heavenly gift that is saith St. Chrysostom received remission of Sins in Baptism and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost the Holy Spirit being given at Baptism and have tasted of the good word of GOD been instructed in the Doctrines of the Gospel which in the Apostolick Age immediately followed Baptism for Men were then admitted to Baptism immediately upon their profession of Repentance and Faith in Christ and were afterwards instructed in the Christian Religion and the powers of the world to come that is those miraculous Gifts and Powers which were bestowed on the Apostles for a confirmation of the Faith of Christ and which most Christians did in some degree or other partake of in Baptism This is a plain Description of Baptism with the effects and consequents of it 2. That he speaks of such as after Baptism totally Apostatize from the Faith of Christ is as plain for they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those who fall away From what from their Christian Profession which they made at their Baptism that is who renounce the Faith of Christ and turn Iews or Heathens again for these Men crucify to themselves the Son of GOD afresh and put him to open shame that is they declare him to be an Impostor
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
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
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
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
unknown Happiness of those Joys which now we have such imperfect conceptions of 2. Nor is it on the other hand any encouragement to bad men that the Miseries of the other World are unknown for it is known that God has threatned very terrible Punishments against bad men and that what these punishments are is unknown makes them a great deal more formidable for who knows the power of God's wrath who knows how miserable God can make bad men This makes it a sensless thing for men to harden themselves against the Fears of the other World because they know not what it is And how then can they tell though they could bear up under all known Miseries but that there may be such Punishments as they cannot bear That they are unknown argues that they are something more terrible than they are aquainted with in this World they are represented indeed by the most dreadful and terrible things by Lakes of Fire and Brimstone Blackness of Darkness the Worm that never dieth and the Fire that never goeth out But bad men think this cannot be true in a literal sence that there can be no Fire to burn Souls and torment them eternally Now suppose it were so yet if they believe these Threatnings they must believe that some terrible thing is signified by everlasting Burnings and if Fire and Brimstone serve only for Metaphors to describe these Torments by what will the real Sufferings of the Damned be for the Spirit of God does not use to describe things by such Metaphors as are greater than the things themselves And therefore let no bad man encourage himself in Sin because he does not know what the punishments of the other World are This should possess us with the greater awe and dread of them since every thing in the other World not only the Happiness but the Miseries of it will prove greater not less than we expect CHAP. II. Concerning the Certainty of our Death HAving thus shewed you under what Notions we are to consider Death and what Wisdom we should learn from them I proceed to the second thing the Certainty of Death It is appointed to men once to die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it remains it is reserved and as it were laid up for them I believe no man will desire a proof of this which he sees with his eyes one Generation succeeds another and those who live longest at last yeild to the fatal Stroke There were two men indeed Enoch and Elias who did not die as Death signifies the separation of Soul and Body but were translated to Heaven without dying but this is the general Law for Mankind from which none are excepted but those whom God by his Soveraign Authority and for wise Reasons thinks fit to except which have been but two since the Creation and will be no more till Christ comes to Judge the World For then St. Paul tells us those who are alive at Christ's second coming shall not die but shall be changed 1 Cor. 15. 51 52. Behold I shew you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed This is such a Change as is equivalent to Death it puts us in the same state with those who are dead and at the last Judgment rise again SECT I. A Vindication of the Iustice and Goodness of GOD in appointing Death for all Men. BUt before I shew you what use to make of this Consideration that we must all certainly Die let us examine how Mankind comes to be Mortal This was no dispute among the Heathens for it was no great wonder that an earthly Body should die and dissolve again into dust it would be a much greater wonder to see a Body of Flesh and Blood preserved in perpetual youth and vigour without any decays of Nature without being sick or growing old But this is a question among us or if it may not be called a question yet it is what deserves our consideration since we learn from the History of Moses that as frail and brittle as these earthly Tabernacles are yet if Man had not sinned he had not died When God created Man and placed him in Paradise he forbad him to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die 2. Gen. 16 17. And when notwithstanding this threatning our first Parents had eat of it God confirms and ratifies the Sentence Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return 3. Gen. 19. What this Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was is as great a mystery to us as what the Tree of Life was for we understand neither of them which makes some men who would not be thought to be ignorant of any thing to flie to Allegorical Sences but though I would be glad to know this if I could yet I must be contented to leave it a Mystery as I find it That which we are concerned in is that this Sentence of Death and Mortality which was pronounced on Adam fell on all his Posterity As St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 15. 21 22. That by man came death and in Adam all die And this he does not only assert but prove 5. Rom. 12 13 14. Wherefore by man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned for until the law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed where there is no law nevertheless death reigned from Adam till Moses even over them who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's trangressions The design of all which is to prove that men die or are mortal not for their own sins but for the sin of Adam Which the Apostle proves by this argument because tho' all men as well as Adam have sinned yet till the giving the Law of Moses there was no Law which threatned Death against Sin but only that Law given to Adam in Paradise which no man else ever did or ever could transgress but he Now sin is not imputed where there is no law That is it is not imputed to any man to death before there is any Law which threatens death against it That no man can be reckoned to die for those sins which no Law punishes with death Upon what account then says the Apostle could those men die who lived between Adam and Moses before the Law was given which threatens death And yet die they all did even those who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression who had neither eaten the forbidden Fruit nor sinned against any other express Law threatning death This could be for no other sin but Adam's he
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
God if he sincerely repent of his sins and reform his life but it only proves that a wicked ungodly Christian who prefers the pleasures and enjoyments of this World before the hopes of Heaven and defiles his Soul with impure and worldly Lusts what pretences soever he may make to the Blessing or how importunate soever he may be for it shall receive no Blessing from God that is that without holiness no man shall see God which is the very thing the Apostle intended to prove by this example as you may see v. 14. I grant the case is different as to Churches and Nations sometimes their day of Grace is fixt and determin'd beyond which without Repentance they shall no longer enjoy the light of the Gospel Thus the appearance of Christ in the Flesh and his preaching the Gospel to them was the last trial of Ierusalem and determin'd the fate of that beloved City and therefore when Christ rode into Ierusalem in order to his Crucifixion When he was come near he beheld the city and wept over it Saying if thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes For the days shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round and keep thee in on every side and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation 19 Luke 41 c. And this our Saviour warned them of before 12 Joh. 35 36. Yet a little is the light with you walk while ye have the light lest darkness come upon you for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth While ye have light believe in the light that ye may be the children of light Which signifies that unless they believed on him while he was with them they must be utterly destroyed The kingdom of God should be taken from them and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof as he proves by the Parable of the Housholder who planted a Vineyard 21 Mat. 33 c. And this was in some measure the case of the seven Churches of Asia to whom St. Iohn directed his Epistles to summon them to repentance and to threaten them with the removal of the Candlestick if they did not repent The judgments of God in the overthrow of some flourishing Churches and in transplanting the Gospel from one Nation to another are very mysterious and unsearchable but as for particular persons who enjoy the light of the Gospel unless they shorten their day of Grace themselves God does not shorten it as long as they live in this World they are capable of Grace and Mercy if they truly repent 2. Men may shorten their own Day of Grace not by shortning the time of Grace and Mercy for that lasts as long as this Life does but by out-living the possibility of Repentance and when they are past Repentance their Day of Grace is at an end and this may be much shorter than their lives that is Men may so harden themselves in sin as to make their Repentance morally impossible and God in his just and righteous Judgments may give up such Men to a state of Hardness and Impenitence Every degree of love to Sin proportionably enslaves Men to the practice of it makes repentance as uneasie and difficult as it is to pluck out a right eye and cut off a right hand 5 Mat. 29 30 as painful as dying as crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts which few Men will submit to 8 Rom. 13. 3 Col. 5. An habit and custom of sin turns into nature and is as difficultly altered as nature is Can the Aethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil 13 Jer. 23. Some sins are of such a hardening nature that few men who are once entangled by them can ever break the snare such as Adultery or the love of strange Women of whom Solomon tells us Her house inclineth unto death and her paths unto the dead none that go unto her return again neither take they hold of the paths of life 2 Prov. 18 19. Covetuousness is such another hardening sin that our Saviour tells us It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven those who love and those who trust in their riches 10 Matth. 23 24 25. Those who have been once enlightned and fall back again into Infidelity who have been instructed in the reasons of Faith and the motives of Obedience who have had the heavenly Seed of God's Word sown in their hearts but have not brought forth the Fruits of it are near the Curse of barren Ground which drinketh in the Dews and Rain of Heaven and brings forth briars and thorns which is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burnt 6 Heb. 4 5 6 7 8. When Men obstinately resist the perpetual motions and solicitations of the holy Spirit he withdraws from them and gives them up to their own counsels as we leave off perswading those who will not be perswaded And when the spirit of God forsakes such Men the evil Spirit seizeth them that Spirit which ruleth in the Children of Disobedience 2 Eph. 3. for the World is divided into the Kingdom of Darkness and the Kingdom of Light 1 Col. 13 and those who are not under the government of the Divine Spirit are led captive by the Devil at his will 2 Tim. 2. 6 and therefore our Saviour hath taught us to pray to be delivered from Evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Evil One that is from the Devil for that is a hopeless state when God gives us up to the government of evil Spirits Nay when Men harden themselves in sin they are rejected by the good Providence of God which secures good Men from or delivers them out of Temptations as our Saviour has taught us to pray Lead us not into temptation as a Father keeps a watchful eye over a dutiful Child to preserve him from any harm and to choose the most proper condition and circumstances of life for him but suffers a Prodigal to go where he pleases and undo himself as fast as he can And whoever considers the weakness and folly of humane Nature and the power of Temptations must needs conclude that Man given up to ruine who is rejected by the good Spirit of God and cast out of the care of his Providence Into this miserable state Men may bring themselves by sin which though it does not make them uncapable of Mercy if they do repent yet it makes it morally impossible that they should repent It is this the Apostle to the Hebrews warns them against from the example of the Hardness and Infidelity
Lives much beyond the short Period of them in this World. 5. If Death puts an end to our Account methinks a Dying-bed is a little of the latest to begin it for this is to begin just where we must end The Account of our Lives is the Account of the Good or Evil we have done while we lived And what account can a dying Man give of this who has spent his whole life in sin and wickedness If he must be judged according to what he hath done in the Body how sad is his account and how impossible is it for him to mend it now For when he is just a dying it is too late for him to begin to live If without holiness no man shall see God how hopeless is his condition who has lived a wicked and profligate life all his days and is now past living and therefore past living a holy life A Man who is confined to a sick and dying Bed is uncapable of exercising the vertues of life his time of work is over almost as perfectly over as if he were dead and therefore his account is finished and he must expect his reward according to what he has already done No you 'll say he may still repent of his sins and a true Penitent shall find mercy even at his last gasp Now I readily grant that all true Penitents shall be saved whensoever they truly repent but it is hard to think that any dying sorrows or the dying vows and resolutions of Sinners shall be accepted by GOD for true repentance The mistakes of this matter are very fatal and therefore I shall briefly explain it In expounding the Promises of the Gospel we must take care to reconcile the Gospel to itself and not make one part of it contradict or overthrow another now as the Gospel promises pardon of sin to true Repentance so it makes Holiness of life as necessary a condition of Salvation as true Repentance Without holiness no man shall see GOD. GOD will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil but glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good Be not deceived GOD is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting The Promises of forgiveness to Repentance are not more express than these Texts are which declare that we shall be rewarded according to our works and we have as much reason to believe the one as the other and if we believe the Gospel we must believe them both and then Repentance and a holy Life are both necessary to Salvation and then the dying sorrows of Sinners who have lived very wicked lives and are past mending them now cannot be true saving Repentance If sorrow for sin without a holy life can carry Men to Heaven then I 'm sure Holiness is not necessary then Men may see God without Holiness and then the promises of pardon to Repentance if this dying Sorrow be true Repentance overthrows the necessity of a holy Life the necessity of a holy Life contradicts the promises of pardon to such Penitents and then either one or both of them must be false To state this Matter plainly and in a few words we must distinguish between two kinds of Repentance 1. The Baptismal Repentance 2. Repentance upon a Relapse or falling into any known and wilful Sin. I. By Baptismal Repentance I mean that Repentance which is necessary in adult persons in order to their receiving Christian Baptism this is the Repentance which is most frequently mentioned in the New Testament and to which the promise of Remission and Forgiveness is annexed this our Saviour preached Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand 4 Matth. 17. This he gave authority to his Apostles to preach That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his Name among all nations 24 Luke 47. Now this Repentance both as to Iews and Heathens who embraced the Faith of Christ was a renouncing all their former Sins and false superstitious or idolatrous Worship and this qualified them for Baptism in which they obtain'd the remission of all their Sins in the Name of Christ and for this reason remission of Sins is promised to Repentance because all such Penitents are received to Baptism which is the washing of Regeneration which washes away all their Sins and puts them into a state of Grace and Favour with God as St. Peter tells the Iews Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Iesus Christ for the remission of sins 2 Acts 38. And much to the same purpose Ananias told St. Paul Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins calling on the Name of the Lord 22 Acts 16. And I know not any one Text in the New Testament wherein the remission of Sins is absolutely promised to Repentance but what must be understood of this Baptismal Repentance and then Repentance and Remission of Sin are inseparably annexed because such Penitents wash away all their Sins in Baptism and come pure and undefiled out of that mystical Fountain which is set open for Sin and for Uncleanness to wash in and to be clean Now I grant should any person who comes to Baptism rightly qualified and disposed with a sincere Repentance and stedfast Faith in Christ die soon after he is baptized before he has time and opportunity to exercise any of the Graces of the Christian Life such a Man shall go to Heaven without actual Holiness the remission of his Sins in Baptism upon his Repentance will save him though he have not time to bring forth the fruits of Repentance in a holy Life and this is the only case I know of wherein a Penitent can be saved without actual Holiness viz. by Baptismal Grace and Regeneration Only the Primitive Church and I think with very good reason allowed the same to Martyrdom when it prevented the Baptism of young Converts as we know under the Pagan Persecutions young Converts who made bold confessions of their Faith in Christ were hurried away to Martyrdom before they had opportunity of being baptized but such Men were baptized in their own Bloud and that supplied the want of Water-baptism which they could not have Now in this case also if Martyrdom be instead of Baptism as the Primitive Church thought it then had any Heathen been converted from a lewd and profligate life to the Faith of Christ and been immediately apprehended and halled to Martyrdom before he could either be baptized or give any other testimony of the reformation of his Life and Manners but by dying
life spent in Wickedness and Folly It is very seldom that such dying Sorrows or dying Vows are sincere and hearty but were they never so sincere as sometimes though very rarely we see that Men who recover from a dangerous Sickness keep the vows and promises they then made and that is a good proof that they were very sincere in making them yet I do not know any one promise in Scripture to a dying Repentance the Gospel requires actual holiness of life and when God cuts off such Men in their sins without allowing them any time to reform their lives it is very suspicious that he rejects their sorrows and their vows as Wisdom threatens 1 Prov. 24 c. Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded I also will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me I will not pre-judge the final state of these Men but if God accept of such a Death-bed Repentance which cannot produce the actual Fruits of Righteousness it is more than he has promised and more than he has given us authority to preach and we should consider what infinite hazard we run by such delays of Repentance that we cannot be saved by the express terms of the Gospel but if we be saved we must be saved by an unpromised and uncovenanted Grace and Mercy which how good soever God be we have no reason to rely on This I know will be thought very severe but I cannot help it it may terrify dying Sinners but there is less danger in that than in nursing Men up in the deluding hopes of a Death-bed Repentance which renders all the arguments and motives to a holy Life ineffectual and I fear eternally destroys as many as trust in it If you ask why Faith and Repentance without the actual obedience of our Lives should not as well be accepted by God on our Death-bed as it is at our Baptism I shall ask another very plain question Why a Husbandman who hires Labourers into his Vineyard in the morning receives them into his service protection and pay only upon their promise to be faithful and diligent in his work before they have done any thing I say when these Men have loitered away the day without working why should not he reward them at night because they then also profess themselves very sorry that they did not work and make a great many promises and vows that if they were to begin the day again they would A promise of faithfulness and diligence was reason enough why he should take them into his service but their sorrow for not working and their resolutions of working when the time of working is past is no reason why they should be rewarded or escape the punishment of Loiterers This is the very case here we are saved by the Mercies of God and the Merits of Christ which we partake of by our union to him this union is made in Baptism which incorporates us into the Body of Christ and from the very first moment of our union we are in a state of Grace and Justification our sins are washed away in his Blood as Water purges all bodily defilements and the Spirit of Christ dwells in us to renew and sanctify us now all that is required by God or that seems in the nature of the thing necessary to this Union is a general Repentance of all our Sins renouncing our former wicked course of Life professing our Faith in Christ as the Son of God and Saviour of the World and vowing Obedience to his Laws for this qualifies us to be his Disciples and to be received into his Service and into the Communion of his Body and Church and therefore this Faith and Repentance justifies in Baptism because those who thus repent of their Sins and believe in Christ are received to Baptism and in Baptism have all their Sins forgiven and are put into a state of Grace and Favour with God. But now though Faith and Repentance and the Vows of Obedience are sufficient to make us the Disciples of Christ and to put us into a state of Justification yet they are not sufficient to save those who are the Disciples of Christ without actual Holiness and Obedience of Life for to be a Disciple of Christ does not signifie meerly to believe in him and to vow obedience to him but to obey him it is reasonable â—nough that upon our Vows of Obedience we should be received into his service but it is not reasonable that we should be rewarded without performing our Vows for it is as ridiculous a thing to think that our repeated sorows for not obeying and our repeated and fruitless resolutions of obeying our Saviour should pass for Obedience as that that Son should be thought to do his Father's will who said I go Sir but went not especially when after our Vow of Baptism we live a very ungodly life and never think it time to repent and to renew our Vows again till we come to die If we consider the difference between what is necessary to make us the Disciples of Christ and what is required of us when we are Disciples we shall see a plain reason why Faith and Repentance as that signifies sorrow for sin and Vows of Obedience will justifie us in Baptism but will not be accepted upon a Death-bed after a life spent in wickedness for when a baptized Christian comes to die he is not then to be made a Disciple of Christ and to be baptized again but to give an account of his life since he has been Christ's Disciple and meer Faith in Christ sorrow for Sin and vows of Obedience without actual Holiness of Life though with the Sacrament of Baptism it will make a Disciple yet it will not pass in a Disciple's account especially when the sum total of his Life is nothing but sin and sorrow and fruitless vows for this is not that holiness of life which Christ requires of his Disciples The ancient Discipline of the Church was a plain proof of this that they thought a great deal more necessary for a baptized Christian than was required to qualifie Men for Baptism In the Apostles days they baptized both Iews and Heathens immediately upon their profession of Faith in Christ and renouncing their former wicked lives but in case they fell into any gross and scandalous sin after Baptism they were cast out of the Communion of the Church and the profession of sorrow and repentance for their sins and the most solemn vows of a new life was not thought sufficient to restore them to the Peace of the Church but they were kept under the severities of Repentance till they had made satisfaction for the Scandal they had given to the Church and given sufficient testimonies of the actual reformation of their Lives and in the Ages succeeding the
well as a dread of his Judgements and deliberate and serious resolutions of changing our course of Life and for the time to come of living to God and to the purposes of his Glory never to return to our old Sins again but diligently to exercise ourselves in all the Duties and Offices of a Christian Life Now suppose a Man who has lived wickedly all his life should be thus changed in a moment and prove such a true Penitent as I have now described and that God who knows the hearts of Men sees that his promises and vows are sincere and that if he were to live any longer he would be a good Man and therefore will pardon and reward him not according to what he has done but according to what he foresees he would have done had he lived any longer which is to judge Men not according to their Works but according to his own Fore-knowledge which the Scripture never makes the Rule of future Judgment I say suppose such Men may be true Penitents and pardoned by God who knows that they are so yet they can never have the comfort of it before they die because it is impossible for them to know it When Men see themselves a dying they are very sorrowful for their sins so they say but the most likely account of it is That they are very sorry they are a going to Hell as a Malefactor is very sorrowful when he is going to the Gibbet This may be the whole of his Sorrow and it is impossible to prove that there should be any thing more in it and extreamly improbable that there is for what likelihood is there that Men who yesterday were very much in love with their sins and as little thought of falling out with them as they did of their dying day should to day as soon as ever they are arrested with a threatning Sickness be Penitents in good earnest and abhor their Sins in a minute and be quite other Men upon the view of the other World This is the case of all Sinners when they come to die which makes it very suspicious that there is nothing extraordinary in it no miraculous power of the divine Spirit to change their hearts in a moment and make them new Men but only the common effect of a great Fear which makes Men sorry for their sins when they come to suffer for them Now if such dying Sinners can never be sure that their sorrow for Sin is any thing more than a great Fright they can be sure of nothing else for such a sorrow as this will counterfeit all the other acts of Repentance Men who are terribly afraid of Punishment are not only sorry for their Sins but this very sorrow makes them ashamed of them gives them a great indignation against themselves for them makes them flatter their Judge and vow and promise reformation if they could escape this one time and this is so very common and familiar that in all other cases no Man regards it a Judge a Father or a Master will not spare upon such promises as these and why should this be thought any thing more in a dying Sinner than in other Malefactors Why should that be thought a sufficient reason for God to pardon which we ourselves think no reason in all other cases All this may be no more than the fear of Hell and I doubt the meer fear of Hell when Men are a dying tho' it may imitate all the scenes of Repentance will not keep them out of Hell. It is so very probable that this is the whole of a Death-bed Repentance that no such dying Sinner can have any reasonable hope that he does truly repent and therefore unless he flatters himself when he dies with a false and counterfeit Repentance as he did while he lived with the hopes of repenting before he died he must expire in all the terrors and agonies of guilty Fears This is so miserable a condition that tho' we should suppose such a Sinner may be a true Penitent and go to Heaven at last yet no wise Man would endure these dying Agonies for all the false and deceitful Pleasures of Sin and yet there is no possible way of avoiding this but by such a timely Repentance while we are well and Death at a distance as may bring forth the actual fruits of Holiness that when we come to die we may have some better evidence of the sincerity of our Repentance than meer dying sorrows 3. Let us now consider the Case of those who are doubtful what their condition is who are neither so good as to be out of all danger and fear nor so bad as to be out of hope and I need not tell any Man that this is a state between Hope and Fear which is a very uneasie state when eternal Happiness or Misery is the matter of the doubt This is the case of those Men who after all their good resolution are ever and anon conquered by temptations who as soon as their tears are dried up for their last fall fall again and then lament their sins and resolve again and while they are thus interchangeably sinning repenting and resolving before they have got a lasting Victory or are arrived to a steady Vertue are summon'd by Death to Judgement or those who have a reverence for God but are not so constant and frequent in their Devotions or if they abstain from gross and scandalous Vices yet they have not a due government of their Passions or do very little good in the World c. Here is such a mixture of Good and Evil that it is hard to know which is predominant while such Men are in health they are very uneasie and know not what to judge of themselves but they fall into much greater perplexities when they are alarm'd with the near aproaches of Death and Judgment And what a deplorable state is this when we are a dying to be uncertain and anxious what will become of us to Eternity Now there is no possible way to prevent these fears when we come to die but by giving all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure by living such holy and innocent Lives that our Consciences may not condemn us and then we shall have confidence towards God. But this is such a remedy as few of these Men like they would be glad to be sure of Heaven but yet would go as near Hell as they can without danger of falling into it they will serve God but must reserve a little favour and indulgence to their Lusts though they dare not take full draughts of sensual Pleasures yet they must be sipping now and then as often as they can pacifie their Consciences and get rid of the Fear of God and of another World and therefore they are very inquisitive after other Cures for an accusing and condemning Conscience are mighty fond of such marks and signs of Grace as will secure them of Heaven without the severities of Mortification