to be spoken by our Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him God also bearing them witness by signs and wonders c. Wherein we have all the satisfaction which the minds of reasonable men could desire as to these things It might be justly expected that the messenger of so great news to the World should be no mean and ordinary person neither was he for the honour was as great in the person who brought it as the importance was in the thing it self No less than the Eternal Son of God came down from the Bosom of his Father to rectifie the mistakes of Mankind and not only to shew them the way to be happy but by the most powerful arguments to perswade them to be so Nay we find all the three persons of the Trinity here engaged in the great work of mans salvation it was first spoken by our Lord God also bearing them witness and that with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost So that not only the first revelation was from God but the testimony to confirm that it was so was from him too there being never so clear an attestation of any divine truths as was of the Gospel From whence it follows that the foundation whereon our Faith stands is nothing short of a divine testimony which God gave to the truth of that revelation of his will so vain are the cavils of those who say we have nothing but meer probabilities for our Faith and do interpret that manner of proof which matters of fact are capable of in a sense derogatory to the firmness of our Christian Faith As tho' we made the Spirit of God a Paraclete or Advocate in the worst sense which might as well plead a bad as a good cause No we acknowledge that God himself did bear witness to that doctrine deliver'd by our Lord and that in a moâ—t signal and effectual manner for the conviction of the world by those demonâ—â—rations of a divine power which accompanied the first Preachers of salvation by the Gospel of Christ. So that here the Apostle briefly and clearly resolves our Faith if you ask Why we believe that great salvation which the Gospel ofâ—ers the anâ—wer is Because it was declared by our Lord who neither could nor woulâ— deceive us if it be asked How we know that this was delivered by our Lord he answers because this was the constant Doctrine of all his Disciples of those who constantly heard him and conversed with him But if you ask again how can we know that their testimony was infallible since they were but men he then resolves all into that that God bare witness to them by signs and wonders and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost And those persons whom these arguments will not convince none other will Who are we that should not think that sufficient which God himself thought so who are we that dare question the certainty of that which hath had the Broad Seal of Heaven to attest it Can any thing make it surer than God himself hath done and can there be any other way more effectual for that end than those demonstrations of a divine power and presence which the Apostles were acted by Those that cavil at this way of proof would have done so at any other if God had made choice of it and those who will cavil at any thing are resolved to be convinced by nothing and such are not fit to be discoursed with 4. Here are the most prevailing motives to perswade them to accept of these offers of salvation There are two passions which are the great hinges of Government viz. mens Hopes and Fears and therefore all Laws have had their sanctions suitable to these two in Rewards and Punishments now there was never any reward which gave greater encouragement to hope never any punishment which made fear more reasonable than those are which the Gospel proposes Will ever that man be good whom the hopes of Heaven will not make so or will ever that man leave his sins whom the fears of Hell will not make to do it What other arguments can we imagine should ever have that power and influence on mankind which these may be reasonably supposed to have Would you have God alter the methods of his Providence and give his rewards and punishments in this life but if so what exercise would there be of the patience forbearance and goodness of God towards wicked men must he do it as soon as ever men sin then he would never try whether they would repent and grow better or must he stay till they have come to such a height of sin then no persons would have cause to fear him but such who are arrived at that pitch of wickedness but how then should he punish them must it be by continuing their lives and making them miserable but let them live and they will sin yet further must it be by utterly destroying them that to persons who might have time to sin the mean while supposing annihilation were all to be fear'd would never have power enough to deter men from the height of their wickedness So that nothing but the misery of a life to come can be of force enough to make men fear God and regard themselves and this is that which the Gospel threatens to those that neglect their salvation which it sometimes calls everlasting fire sometimes the Worm that never dies sometimes the wrath to come sometimes everlasting destruction all enough to fill the minds of men with horror at the apprehension and what then will the undergoing it do Thence our Saviour reasonably bids men not fear them that can only kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell Thus the Gospel suggests the most proper object of fear to keep men from sin and as it doth that so it presents likewise the most desireable object of hope to encourage men to be good which is no less than a happiness that is easier to hope to enjoy than to comprehend a happiness infinitely above the most ambitious hopes and glories of this world wherein greatness is added to glory weight to greatness and eternity to them all therefore call'd a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Wherein the Joys shall be full and constant the perception clear and undisturbed the fruition with continual delight and continual desire Where there shall be no fears to disquiet no enemies to allarm no dangers to conquer nothing shall then be but an uninterrupted peace an unexpressible Joy and pleasures for evermore And what could be ever imagined more satisfactory to minds tired out with the vanities of this world than such a repose as that is What more agreeable to the minds and desires of good men than to be eased of this clog of flesh and to spend eternity with the fountain of all
divine Assistance which is promised to those who embrace it 1. In confirmation of the Truth of it For the World was grown so uncertain as to the grand foundations of Religion that the same power was requisite now to settle the World which was at first for the framing of it For though the Precepts of Christian Religion be pure and easie holy and suitable to the sense of Mankind though the Promises be great and excellent proportionable to our wants and the weight of our business though the reward be such that it is easier to desire than comprehend it yet all these would but seem to baffle the more the expectations of men unless they were built on some extraordinary evidence of divine power And such we assert there was in the confirmation of these things to us not only in the miraculous birth of our Saviour and that continual series of unparallel'd miracles in his life not only in the most obliging circumstances of his death not only in the large effusion of divine gifts upon his Apostles and the strange propagation of Christian Religion by them against all humane power but that which I shall particularly instance in as the great effect of divine power and confirmation of our Religion was his Resurrection from the dead For as our Apostle saith Rom. 1.4 Christ was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection from the dead No way of evidence could be more suitable to the capacities of all than this it being a plain matter of fact none ever better attested than this was not only by the unanimous consent of all the witnesses but by their constant adhering to the truth of it though it cost almost all of them their lives and no greater evidence could be given to the World of a divine power since both Iews and Gentiles agreed in this that such a thing could not be effected but by an immediate hand of God So far were they then from thinking a resurrection possible by the juice of herbs or an infusion of warm blood into the veins or by the breath of living Creatures as the great Martyr for Atheism would seem from Pliny to perswade us when yet certainly nothing can be oâ— higher concernment to those who believe not another life than to have tried this experiment long ere now and since nothing of that nature hath ever happened since our Saviour's resurrection it only lets us know what credulous men in other things the greatest infidels as to Religion are But so far were they at that time from so fond an imagination that they readily yielded that none but God could do it tho' they seem'd to question whether God himself could do it or no. As appears by the Apostle's Interrogation Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead Act. 26.8 This was therefore judged on both sides to be a matter of so great importance that all the disputes concerning Christian Religion were resolved into this Whether Christ were risen from the dead And this the Apoâ—tles urge and insist on upon all occasions as the great evidence of the truth of his Doctrine and this was the main part of their Commission for they were sent abroad to be witnesses of his Resurrection Which was not designed by God as a thing strange and incredible to puzzle Mankind with but to give the highest assurance imaginable to the World of the truth and importance of Christianity Since God was pleased to imploy his power in so high a manner to confirm the certainty of it 2. God's power was seen in the admirable effects of Christian Religion upon the minds of men which was most discernable by the strange alteration it soon made in the state of the world In Iudoea soon after the death of Christ some of his Crucifiers become Christians 3000 Converts made at one Sermon of St. Peter's and great accessions made afterwards both in Hierusalem and other places Yea in all parts of the Roman Empire where the Christians came they so increased and multiplied that thereby it appeared that God had given a Benediction to his new Creation suitable to what he gave to the first So that within the compass of not a hundred years after our Saviour's death the World might admire to see it self so strangely changed from what it was The Temple at Hierusalem destroy'd and the Iews under a sadder dispersion than ever and rendred uncapable of continuing their former Worship of God there the Heathen Temples unfrequented the Gods derided the Oracles ceased the Philosophers puzzled the Magistrates disheartned by their fruitless cruelties and all this done by a few Christians who came and preached to the World Righteousness Temperance and a Iudgment to come whereof God had given assurance to the World by raising one Iesus from the dead And all this effected not by the power of Wit and Eloquence not by the force and violence of rebellious subjects not by men of hot and giddy brains but by men sober just humble and meek in all their carriages but withal such as might never have been heard of in the world had not this Doctrine made them famous What could this then be imputed to less than a Divine Power which by effectual and secret ways carries on its own design against all the force and wit of men So that the wise Gamaliel at whose feet St. Paul was bred seem'd to have the truest apprehensions of these things at that time when he told the Sanhedrin If this counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest haply ye be found to fight against God Act. 5.38 39. 3. In the Divine Assistance which is promised to those who embrace it in which respect it is properly the power of God to salvation and therein far beyond what the Philosophers could promise to any who embraced their opinions For the Gospel doth not only discover the necessity of a Principle superiour to Nature which we call Grace in order to the fitting our souls for their future happiness but likewise shews on what terms God is pleased to bestow it on men viz. on the consideration of the death and passion of our Lord and Saviour Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Christ our Saviour Titus 3.5 There being nothing in humane nature which could oblige God to give to Mankind that assistance of his grace whereby they are enabled to work out this salvation the Gospel is designed for with fear and trembling The whole tenor of the Gospel importing a divine power which doth accompany the preaching of it which is designed on purpose to heal the wounds and help the weakness of our depraved and degenerate nature Through which we
this testimony which God gave to the Apostles by the solemn celebration of that glorious descent of the Holy Ghost upon them on the day of Pentecost that which naturally follows from it is the great care we ought to take lest we be found guilty of neglecting that great salvation which is offered to us in that Doctrine which was attested in so eminent a manner by God himself and that from the consideration of our own danger for how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation wherein are three things considerable 1. The care God hath taken to make us happy by offering so great salvation to us 2. The care we ought to take in order to our own happiness not to neglect the offers which God hath made us 3. The unavoidable punishment which those do incur who are guilty of this neglect How shall we escape I need not tell this Auditory how forcible the Negative is which is expressed by such an interrogation which appeals to the judgment of all who hear it and so relies not upon the bare authority of the speaker but upon the plain evidence of the thing which others were judges of as well as himself As though he had said if you slight and disesteem the Gospel of Christ upon whatever grounds ye do it if either through too great an opinion of the wisdom of this world you despise it as vain and useless if through too mean an opinion of the excellency of Christianity you reject it either as uncertain in its Theory or impossible in its Practice or if through too great a love of the pleasures of sin or a secure and careless temper of mind you regard not the doing what Christianity requires to make you happy think with your selves what way you can find to escape the wrath of God for my part I know of none for if God were so severe against the violation of a far meaner institution viz. of the Law of Moses insomuch that every contempt and disobedience did receive a just recompence of reward how shall we escape who neglect so great salvation or as the Apostle elsewhere argues to the same purpose He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace This is a sad subject but I am afraid too necessary to be spoken to in the Age we live in wherein men seem to be in apprehensive of the danger of inwardly despising the Religion they profess to own and the neglecting of that which they hope to be saved by It is strange that it should be so but much more strange that men should think to do so and not be called to an account for it It is not only the gross and open sinner that defies Heaven and by his oaths and blasphemies dares God to shew his Power and Justice upon him but the slie and self-deceiving hypocrite that hates Religion while he thinks he loves it that in his heart contemns it but is afraid to know that he does so that ought to be possessed with a truer sense of Religion and a greater dread of the issue of the contempt or neglect of it There is some appearance of ingenuity in an open enmity but none so dangerous as that which hides it self under the disguise of friendship In our Saviours time there were several â—orts of those who shewed their dis-esteem of him some that were so enraged against him that they contrive all ways for his disgrace and punishment others could hear him with patience but the cares of this World the deceitfulness of Riches and the lust of other things choaked and stifled all good apprehensions of him that they became weak and ineffectual And those were guilty of making light of the marriage-feast because of other business which they had to mind Matth. 22.5 as well as those who offered all the injuries and affronts to his servants that invited them v. 6. And as it was in the days of our Saviour so it is now some were eating and drinking minding nothing but the vain and sensual pleasures of the world some were buying and selling so busie in this world that they had no leasure to think of being happy in another some were deriding and blaspheming but all these too wise or too vain or too profane to mind the offers of eternal salvation I wish we could say it were otherwise now that a sensual and voluptuous an easie and a careless life in some that ambition and the restless pursuit after the honour and riches of the world in others that a profane wit and a contempt of all that is serious in those that think themselves too great to be Religious did not enervate the force of Christianity upon their minds and make them all though upon different grounds agree in the neglect of their own salvation But is the case of such men grown so desperate that no remedy can work upon them hath the love of sin and the world so far intoxicated them that no reason or consideration whatever can awaken them have they hardned themselves against all the power of divine Truths with a resolution as strong as death and as cruel as the grave whither they are going Will neither the love of happiness nor the fear of misery their own interest and the wisdom of avoiding so great a danger the dread of the Majesty and Power of God and the horror of the great day prevail at least so far on men to consider whether these things be true or no and if they be what unspeakable folly it is to neglect them And the better to make that appear I shall prove these following things 1. That God by the Gospel hath taken so great care of mens happiness that nothing but a gross neglect can make them miserable 2. That nothing can be more unreasonable than when God hath taken so much care of it men should neglect it themselves 3. That it is very just for God to vindicate himself against so gross a neglect by the severe punishments of the life to come 1. That God by the Gospel hath taken so great care of mens salvation that nothing but a gross neglect can make them miserable For whatever the mind of man can imagine necessary in order to its own happiness in its present fallen and degenerate condition is abundantly provided for by the Gospel of Christ. For man was so wholly lost as to his own felicity that among the ruins and decays of his Nature he could not pick up so much as the perfect Image and Idea of his own happiness when he reflects upon himself he finds himself such a confused mass of folly and weakness that he can never imagine that so noble a design should have its
with a great deal of pomp and ceremony with the sounding of the Trumpets and rejoycing of the People which continued during the libation or pouring it out before the Altar after which followed the highest expressions of joy that were ever used among that people insomuch that they have a saying among them That he that never saw the rejoycing of the drawing of water never saw rejoycing in all his life Of which several accounts are given by the Jews some say it had a respect to the later rain which God gave them about this time others to the keeping of the Law but that which is most to our purpose is that the reason assigned by one of the Rabbies in the Ierusalem Talmud is because of the drawing or pouring out of the Holy Ghost according to what is said with joy shall ye draw water out of the Wells of Salvation By which we see that no fairer advantage could be given to our Saviour to discourse concerning the effusion of the Holy Ghost and the mighty joy which should be in the Christian Church by reason of that than in the time of this solemnity and so lets them know that the Holy Ghost represented by their pouring out of water was not to be expected by their rites and ceremonies but by believing the doctrine which he preached and that this should not be in so scant and narrow a measure as that which was taken out of Siloam which was soon poured out and carried away but out of them on whom the Holy Ghost should come rivers of living waters should flow whose effect and benefit should never cease as long as the World it self should continue So that in the words of the Text we have these particulars offered to our consideration 1. The effusion of the Spirit under the times of the Gospel But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive 2. The nature of that effusion represented to us by rivers of living waters flowing out of them 3. The time that was reserved for it which was after the glorious ascension of Christ to Heaven For the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Iesus was not yet glorified 1. The effusion of the Spirit under the times of the Gospel by which we mean those extraordinary gifts and abilities which the Apostles had after the Holy Ghost is said to descend upon them Which are therefore called signs and wonders and divers gifts of the Holy Ghost and the operations of the Spirit of which we have a large enumeration given us in that place The two most remarkable which I shall insist upon and do comprehend under them most of the rest are the power of working Miracles whether in Healing diseases or any other way and the gift of tongues either in speaking or interpreting they who will acknowledge that the Apostles had these will not have reason to question any of the rest And concerning these I shall endeavour to prove 1. That the things attributed to the Apostles concerning them could not arise from any ordinary or natural causes 2. That they could not be the effects of an evil but of a holy and divine spirit and therefore that there was really such a pouring out of the spirit as is here mentioned 1. That the things attributed to the Apostles could not arise from any meerly natural causes It is not my present business to prove the truth of the matters of fact viz. that the Apostles did those things which were accounted Miracles by those who saw them or heard of them and that on the day of Pentecost they did speak with strange tongues for these things are so universally attested by the most competent witnesses viz. persons of the same age whose testimony we can have no reason to suspect and not only by those who were the friends to this Religion but the greatest enemies Jews and Heathens and by all the utmost endeavours of Atheistical men who have not set themselves to disprove the testimony but the consequence of it by saying that granting them true they do not infer the concurrence of a divine spirit that on the same grounds any person would question the truth of these things he must question the truth of some other things which himself believes on the same or weaker grounds than these are Supposing then the matters of fact to be true we now enquire whether these things might proceed from any meerly natural causes which will be the best done by examining the most plausible accounts which are pretended to be given of them And thus some have had the confidence to say That whatever is said to be done by the power of miracles in the Apostles might be effected by a natural temperament of body or the great power of imagination and that their speaking with strange tongues might be the effect only of a natural Enthusiasm or some distemper of brain 1. That the power of miracles might be nothing but a natural temperament or the strength of imagination 1. An excellent natural temper of body they say may do strange and wonderâ—ul things so that such a one who hath an exact temperament may walk upon the waters stand in the air and quench the violence of the fire and by a strange kind of sanative contagion may communicate healthful spirits as persons that are infected do noisom and pestilential These are things spoken with as much case and as little reason as any of the calumnies against Religion which are so boldly uttered by men who dare speak any thing as to these things but reason and do any thing but what is good But can these men after all their confidence produce any one person in the World who by the exquisiteness of his natural temper hath ever walked upon the waters or poised himself in the air or kept himself from being singed in the fire If these things be natural how comes it to pass that no other instances can be given but such as we urge for miraculous We say indeed that Christ walked on the Sea but withal we say this was an argument of that divine power in him which as Iob saith alone spreadeth out the heavens and treadeth upon the waves of the Sea We say that Elijah was carried up into Heaven by a Chariot of fire and a whirlwind but it was only by his power who maketh the winds his Messengers and flames of fire his Ministers as some render those words of the Psalmist We say that the three Children were preserved in the fiery furnace that they had no hurt and even Nebuchadnezzar was hereby convinced that he was the true God which was able to preserve his servants from the force of that devouring element which was therefore so much worshipped by those Eastern people because it destroyed not only the men but the Gods of other nations But is this enough to satisfie any reasonable men that these things were done by
shall be more happy and others more miserable by it The righteous shall not only see God but know what the seeing of God means and that the greatest happiness we are capable of is implyed therein and the wicked shall not only be bid to depart from him but shall then find that the highest misery imaginable is comprehended in it It is a great instance of the weakness of our capacities here that our discourses concerning the happiness and misery of a future life are like those of Children about affairs of State which they represent to themselves in a way agreeable to their own Childish fancies thence the Poetical dreams of Elysian fields and turning wheels and rouling stones and such like imaginations Nay the Scripture it self sets forth the joys and torments of another world in a way more suited to our fancy than our understanding thence we read of sitting down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob to represent the happiness of that State and of a gnawing worm and a devouring fire and blackness of darkness to set forth the misery of it But as the happiness of Hâ—aven doth infinitely exceed the most lofty metaphors of Scripture so doth the misery of Hell the most dreadful representation that can be made of it Although a worm gnawing our entrails and a fire consuming our outward parts be very sensible and moving metaphors yet they cannot fully express the anguish and torment of the soul which must be so much greater as it is more active and sensible than our bodies can be Take a man that afflicts himself under the sense of some intolerable disgrace or calamity befallen him or that is oppressed with the guilt of some horrid wickedness or sunk into the depth of despair the Agonies and Torments of his Mind may make us apprehend the nature of that misery although he falls short of the degrees of it And were this misery to be of no long continuance yet the terror of it must needs be great but when the worm shall never dye and the fire shall never be quenched when insupportable misery shall be everlasting nothing can then be added to the terrour of it and this is as plainly contained in the sentence of wicked men as any thing else is But here men think they may justly plead with God and talk with him of his judgments what proportion say they is there between the sins of this short life and the eternal misery of another which objection is not so great in it self as it appears to be by the weak answers which have been made to it When to assign a proportion they have made a strange kind of infinity in sin either from the object which unavoidably makes all sins equal or from the wish of a sinner that he might have an eternity to sin in which is to make the justice of God's punishments to be not according to their works but to their wishes But we need not strain things so much beyond what they will bear to vindicate God's Justice in this matter Is it not thought just and reasonable among men for a man to be confined to perpetual imprisonment for a fault he was not half an hour in committing Nay do not all the Laws of the world make death the punishment of some crimes which may be very suddenly done And what is death but the eternal depriving a man of all the comforts of life And shall a thing then so constantly practised and universally justified in the world be thought unreasonale when it is applyed to God It is true may some say if annihilation were all that was meant by eternal death there could be no exception against it but I ask whether it would be unjust for the Laws of men to take away the lives of offenders in case their souls survive their bodies and they be for ever sensible of the loss of life if not why shall not God presâ—rve the honour of his Laws and vindicate his Authority in governing the world by â—entencing obstinate sinners to the greatest misery though their souls live foâ— ever in the appreâ—ension of it Especially since God hath declared these things so evidently before-hand and made them part of his Laws and set everlasting life on the other side to ballance everlasting misery and proposed them to a sinner's choice in such a manner that nothing but contempt of God and his Grace and wilâ—ul impenitency can ever betray men into this dreadful State of eternal destruction 2. Thus much for the Argument used by the Apostle the terrour of the Lord I now come to the assurance he expresseth of the truth of it Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men We have two ways of proving Articles of Faith such as this concerning Christ's coming to judgment is 1. By shewing that there is nothing unreasonable in the belief of them 2. That there is sufficient evidence of the truth and certainty of them In the former of these it is of excellent use to produce the common apprehensions of mankind as to a future judgment and the several arguments insisted on to that purpose for if this were an unreasonable thing to believe how come men without Revelation to agree about it as a thing very just and reasonable If the conflagration of the world were an impossible thing how came it to be so anciently received by the eldest and wisest Philosophers How came it to be maintained by those two Sects which were St. Paul's enemies when he preached at Athens and always enemies to each other the Epicureans and the Stoicks It is true they made these conflagrations to be periodical and not final but we do not establish the belief of our doctrine upon their assertion but from thence shew that is a most unreasonable thing to reject that as impossible to be done which they assert hath been and may be often done But for the truth and certainty of our doctrine we build that upon no less a foundation than the word of God himself We may think a judgment to come reasonable in general upon the consideration of the goodness and wisdom and justice of God but all that depends upon this supposition that God doth govern the world by Laws and not by Power but since God himself hath declared it who is the Supreme Judge of the world that he will bring every work into judgment whether it be good or evil since the Son of God made this so great a part of his doctrine with all the circumstances of his own coming for again this end since he opened the commission he received from the Father for this purpose when he was upon earth by declaring that the Father had committed all judgment to the Son and that the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good to the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation Since
argument strong enough to perswade any man to part not only with what he hath or hopes for in this life but with life it self He that is so great a Fool to be an Atheist would yet be much more so to be a Martyr for his opinion What is there could recompence the loss of life to a man that believes that there is nothing after it But supposing there should be a life to come as it is impossible to give any demonstration to the contrary what madness would it be for a man to run himself into the miseries of another world with a design to prove there is none If all that our Saviour had meant were only to represent the folly of a person that would lay down his life for the purchase of an estate for so the soul is often taken for the life that would not have reached the scope and design of his discourse And no instances can be produced of such a kind of folly which would be as great as for a man to lose his head for a wager or to purchase the lease of his life by destroying himself But supposing this to be a Proverbial speech yet the folly of losing a mans life for the gain of the whole world is not brought in by our Saviour meerly for it self but as it doth much more represent the unspeakable folly of such who for the love of this world will venture the loss of all eternal life and enduring all the misery which is consequent upon it If that man would gain nothing by his bargain but the reputation of a Fool that for the possession of the whole world for one momen would be content to be killed in the next how much greater folly are they guilty of that for the sake of this world and the preservation of their lives here expose themselves to all the miseries of another life which God hath threatned or their souls can undergo It is such a loss of the soul which is here spoken of as is consistent with the preservation of this present life for whosoever saith Christ will save his life shall lose it and to those words before those of the text have a particular reference and therefore must be understood not of losing this life but of the loss of the Soul in a future state And this loss cannot be understood of the souls annhilation or ceasing to be as soon as the life is gone for that being supposed he would be the happiest man that had the most of this world at his command and enjoyed the greatest pleasure in it So St. Paul himself determines that if there were no future state the Epicureans argument would take place Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die and he reckons those among the most miserable of all mankind who ventured the loss of all that is accounted desirable in this world and of their lives too if there were not a better life to come For if in this life only we have hope in Christ saith he we are of all men the most miserable So that the strength of our Saviour's discourse depends upon the supposition of the immortality of the soul and its capacity of being happy or miserable in a future state And it is the great commendation of the Christian Religion that the particular duties required in it are established on the same Foundations that natural Religion is which are the belief of a Deity and the immortality of the Soul For he that comes unto God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him which being spoken with a respect to one who for being good was translated out of this world must refer to the rewards of a future life And we desire no more than these common principles of Religion to make the most difficulâ— duties of Christianity appear reasonable to mankind For it is upon the account of this future state of the soul that it is our most just and necessary care to look after the welfare of our souls in the first place to seek the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof before the concernments of this present life because a state that endures for ever ought to be preferred before a short and uncertain abode in this world It is this which makes it reasonable to please God though to the displeasing our selves and the crossing our natural inclinations because eternal happiness and misery depends upon his favour or displeasure It is this which obliges men to the greatest care of their actions because their future state in another world will be according to their lives here for every man shall then receive according to his works It is this which ought to keep men from all fleshly lusts not meerly because they are inconvenient for their bodies but because they war against their souls It is this which makes the love of this world so dangerous a thing because it draws away the hearts and affections of men from things which are above and fixes them upon things below It is this which make it necessary for us to subdue our passions to conquer temptations to forgive injuries to be patient under afflictions and to lay down our lives for Religion because there will be a reward for the righteous and the happiness of another state will make abundant recompence for all the difficulties of this So that in the Gospel the doctrine of the souls immortality is not spoken of as the nice speculation of subtile and contemplative men nor meerly suposed as a foundation of all Religion but it is interwoven in the substance of it and adds strength to all its parts For herein we find the immortality of the soul not barely asserted nor proved by uncertain arguments nor depending on the opinion of Philosophers but delivered with the greatest authority revealed with the clearest light and confirmed by the strongest evidence If any one can make known to mankind the state of souls in another world it must be God himself if ever it was made known plainly by him it must be in the Gospel whereby life and immortality are brought to light if ever any arguments were proper to convince mankind of it they are such as are contained therein For it is not barely the resurrection of our Lord which is a manifest evidence of the truth of the souls subsisting aâ—â—er a real death but the whole design of his doctrine and the Christian Religion is built upon it So that if we suppose the immortality of the soul the Christian Religion appears more reasonable by it but if we suppose the doctrine of Christ to be true there can be no doubt left of the immortality of the soul and whatever arguments we have to prove the truth of this doctrine by the same do of necessity prove the certainty of the souls immortality I confess many subtile arguments have been used by those who never knew any thing of divine revelation to prove the