worth the obedience and service of a few years how difficult soever that were 4hly If our lives are so very short at their utmost extent the sinful pleasures of this World can be no great temptation when compared with an Eternity of Happiness or Misery Those sensual pleasures which men are so fond of and for the sake of which they break the Laws of God and provoke his Justice forfeit immortal Life and expose themselves to all the Miseries and Sufferings of an eternal Death can last no longer than we live in this World and how little a while is that When we put off these Bodies all bodily pleasures perish with them nay indeed as our bodies die and decay by degrees before they tumble into the Grave so do our pleasures sensibly decay too As short as our lives are men may out-live some of their most beloved Vices and therefore how luscious soever they may be such short and dying Pleasures ought not to come in competition with eternal Happiness or Mifery what ever things are in their own nature the value of them increases or diminishes according to the length or shortness of their enjoyment that which will last our lives and make them easy and comfortable is to be prefered by wise men before the most ravishing enjoyments of a day and a happiness which will out-last our lives and reach to eternity is to be preferred before the perishing enjoyments of a short life unless men can think it better to be happy for threescore years than for ever nay unless men think the enjoyments of threescore years a sufficient recompence for eternal want and misery 5hly The shortness of our lives are a sufficient answer to all these arguments against Providence taken from the Prosperity of bad Men and the Miseries and Afflictions of the good for both of them are so short that they are nothing in the account of Eternity Were this life to be considered by it self without any relation to a future State the difficulty would be greater but not vâ—ry great because a short happiness or a short misery chequered and intermixt as all the happiness and miseries of this life are is not very considerable nor were it worth the while either to make objections against Providence or to answer them if Death put an end to us Bad men who make these Objections against Providence are very well contented to take the World as they find it so they may have it without a Providence which is a sign that it is not their dislike of this World though many times they suffer as much in it as good men do which makes them quarrel at Providence but the dread and fear of another World and this proves that they think this World a very tolerable place whether there be a Providence or not And if so short a life as this is be but tolerable it is a sufficient justification of Providence that this life is well enough for its continuance a very mixt and imperfect state indeed but very short too such a state as bad men themselves would like very well without another World after it and such a state as good men like very well with another Life to follow It is not a spight at humane life which makes them reject a Providence as any one would guess who hears them object their own Prosperity and the Calamities of good men as arguments against Providence both which they like very well and whatever there may be in these Objections supposing there were no other life after this yet when they all vanish at the very naming of another life where good Men shall be rewarded and the Wicked punished it is ridiculous to prove that there is no other life after this because rewards and punishments are not dispensed with that exact Justice in this life as we might suppose God would observe if there were no other life To prove that there is no other life after this because good and bad men do not receive their just rewards in this life is an Argument which becomes the wit and understanding of an Atheist for they must first take it for granted that there is no Providence before this argument can prove any thing for if there be a Providence then the prosperity of bad Men and the sufferings of the good is a much better argument that there is another life after this where rewards and punishments shall be more equally distributed Thus when they dispute against Providence from the Prosperity of bad men and the Calamities of the good before this can prove any thing they must take it for granted that there is no other life after this where good Men shall be rewarded and the wicked punished for if there be it is easie enough to justifie the Providence of God as to the present prosperity of bad men and the sufferings of the good So that they must of necessity dispute in a circle as the Papists do between the Church and the Scriptures when they either prove that there is no Providence or no Life after this from the unequal rewards and punishments of bad and good Men in this World For in effect they prove that there is no Providence because there is no life after this or that there is no life after this because there is no Providence for the prosperity of bad Men and the sufferings of the good proves neâ—â—her of them unless you take the other for granted and if you will prove them both by this Medium you must take them both for granted by turns and that is the easier and safer way to take them for granted without exposing themselves to the scorn of wise men by such kind of proofs But yet though this were no Objection against the being of another World and a Providence yet had the prosperity of bad Men and the calamities of the good continued some hundred years it had been a greater difficulty and a greater temptation than now it is The prosperity of the Wicked is a much less objection when it is so easily answered as the Psalmist does Yet a little while and the wicked shall not be yea thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be 37 Psal. 10. When the very same persons who have been the Spectators and Witnesses of his prosperous Villanies live to see a quick and sudden end of him I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green bay-tree yet he passed away and lo he was not yea I sought him but he could not be found 35 36 And this is enough also to support the spirits of good men For this cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 16 17. SECT V. The time and manner and circumstances of every particular Man's Death is not determined
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 order of Nature to fall in love with our Slaves and change Fortunes and Shackles with them That our Saviour might well say He that commiteth sin is the Servant of Sin for this is a vile and unnatural subjection to serve the Body which was made to serve the Soul such Men shall receive the reward of Slaves to be turned out of God's Family and not to inherit with Sons and Freemen as our Saviour adds The Servant abideth not in the House for ever but the Son abideth for ever if the Son therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed 8 John 31 32. III. That Death which is our leaving this World is nothing else but our putting off these Bodies teaches us That it is only our union to these Bodies which intercepts the sight of the other World The other World is not at such a distance from us as we may imagine the Throne of God indeed is at a great remove from this Earth above the third Heavens where he displays his Glory to those blessed Spirits which encompass his Throne but as soon as we step out of these Bodies we step into the other World which is not so properly another World for there is the same Heaven and Earth still as a new State of Life To live in these Bodies is to live in this World to live out of them is to remove into the next For while our Souls are confined to these Bodies and can look only through these material Casements nothing but what is material can affect us nay nothing but what is so gross that it can reflect light and convey the shapes and colours of things with it to the eye So that though within this visible World there be a more Glorious Scene of things than what appears to us we perceive nothing at all of it For this vail of Flesh parts the visible and invisible World But when we put off these Bodies there are new and surprizing Wonders present themselves to our view when these material spectacles are taken off our Souls with its own naked eyes sees what was invisible before And then we are in the other World when we can see it and converse with it Thus St. Paul tells us That when we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord but when we are absent from the body we are present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 6 8. And methinks this is enough to cure us of our fondness for these Bodies unless we think it more desirable to be confined to a Prison and to look through a Grate all our lives which gives us but a very narrow prospect and that none of the best neither then to be set at liberty to view all the glories of the World. What would we give now for the least glimpse of that Invisible World which the first step we take out of these Bodies will present us with There are such things as eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive Death opens ours eyes enlarges our prospect presents us with a new and more glorious World which we can never see while we are shut up in Flesh which should make us as willing to part with this Vail as to take the Film off of our Eyes which hinders our sight IV. If we must put off these Bodies methinks we should not much glory nor pride ourselves in them nor spend too much of our time about them For why should that be our pride why should that be our business which we must shortly part with And yet as for pride these mortal corruptible Bodies and what relates to them administer most of the occasions of it Some men glory in their Birth and in their Descent from Noble Ancestors and Ancient Families which besides the Vanity of it for if we trace our Pedigrees to their Original it is certain that all our Families are equally Ancient and equally Noble for we descend all from Adam and in such a long Descent as this no man can tell whether there have not been Beggars and Princes in those which are the noblest and meanest Families now Yet I say what is all this but to pride ourselves in our Bodies and our bodily Descent unless men think that their Souls are derived from their Parents too Indeed our Birth is so very ignoble whatever our Ancestors are or however it may be dissembled with some pompous circumstances that no man has any reason to glory in it for the greatest Prince is born like the wild Asses Colt. Others glory in their external Beauty which how great and charming soever it be is but the beauty of the Body which if it be spared by Sickness and old Age must perish in the Grave Death will spoil those features and colours which are now admired and after a short time there will be no distinction between this beautiful Body and common Dust. Others are guilty of greater Vanity than this and what Nature has denied they supply by Art they adorn their Bodies with rich Attire and many times such Bodies as will not be adorned and then they glory in their borrowed Feathers But what a sorry beauty is that which they cannot carry into the other World And if they must leave their Bodies in the Grave I think there will be no great occasion in the other World for their rich and splendid Apparel which will not fit a Soul. Thus what do Riches signifie but to minister to the wants and conveniences and pleasures of the Body And therefore to pride ourselves in Riches is to glory in the Body too to think our selves more considerable than other men because we can provide better for our Bodies than they can And what a mean and contemptible Vice is Pride whose subject and occasion is so mean and contemptible To pride ourselves in these Bodies which have so ignoble an extraction are of so short a continuance and will have so ignoble an end must lie down in the Grave and be food for Worms As for the Care of our Bodies that must unavoidably take up great part of our time to supply the necessities of Nature and to provide the conveniences of Life but this may be for the good of our Souls too as honest Labour and Industry and ingenious Arts are but for men to spend their whole time in Sloth and Luxury in Eating and Drinking and Sleeping in Dressing and Adorning their Bodies or gratifying their Lusts this is to be vile Slaves and Servants to the Body to Bodies which neither need nor deserve this from us after all our care they will tumble into Dust and commonly much the sooner for our indulgence of them V. If Death be our putting off these Bodies then it is certain that we must live without these Bodies till the Resurrection nay that we must always live without such Bodies as these are for though our Bodies shall rise again yet they shall be changed and
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
a direct contradiction to justifying Faith nay if the justifying act of Faith were an actual reliance and recumbency on Christ for Salvation Despair must be very mortal because while Men are under these Agonies they do not they cannot rely on Christ for Salvation for they believe that Christ has cast them off and will not save them but if to believe in Christ that he is the Saviour of the World that he has made expiation for our Sins and intercedes for us at the right hand of God and is able to save to the uttermost all those that come unto God by him that he will save all true penitent Sinners and will save us if we be true Penitents I say if such a Faith as this when it brings forth the genuine fruits of Repentance and a holy Life be a true justifing Faith this is consistent with the blackest Despair and then Men may be in a justified state though they are never so strongly perswaded that they are Reprobates A very good Man may have his fancy disturbed and may pass a false judgment upon himself but this is no reason for God to condemn him no more than God will justifie a presuming and enthusiastick Hypocrite because he justifies himself 4. If Death put a final end to our Work and Labour and shuts up our Accounts then it concerns us to do all the good that we can while we live What ever our hand findeth to do we should do it with all our might seeing there is no wisdom nor knowledge nor working in the grave whither we are hasting Not that the next World is an idle and unactive State where we shall know nothing and have nothing to do but Death puts an end to our working for the other World nothing can be brought to our account at the Day of Judgment but the good we do while we live here for this onely we shall receive our reward proportionable to the encrease and wise improvement of our Talents And is not this a good reason why we should begin to serve God betimes and to take all opportunities of doing good since we have only a short life to work in for Eternity There are great and glorious rewards prepared for good Men but those shall have the brightest Crown who do the most good in the World who are rich in good works and lay up for themselves treasures in heaven Indeed the meanest place in Heaven is a happiness too great for us to conceive I 'm sure much greater than our greatest deserts but since our bountiful Lord will reward all the good service we do why should we neglect doing any good when such neglects will lessen our reward why should we be contented to lose any degrees of Glory This is a holy Ambition to be as good and to be as happy as God can make us This is never thought of by those Men who have no greater designs than to escape Hell but as for the Glories of Heaven they can be contented with the least share of them No Man will ever get to Heaven who so despises the Glories of it and if a late repentance should open our eyes not only to see our sins but to alter our opinions of this World and of the next yet we can never recal our past time and that little time that remains which is the very dregs and sediment of our lives the dead and unactive Scene will minister very few opportunities of doing good and if it did we are capable of doing very little and if we get to Heaven that will be all but the bright and triumphant Crowns shall be bestowed upon those who have improved their time and their talents better It is the good we do while we live that shall be rewarded and therefore we must take care to do good while we live It is well when Men who do no good while they live will remember to do some good when they die But if God should accept such presents as these yet it will make great abatements in the account that they kept their Riches themselves as long as they could and would part with nothing to God till they could keep it no longer it is not the Gift but the mind of the Giver that is accepted Under the Gospel God is pleased with a living Sacrifice but the Offerings of the Dead and such these Testimentary Charities are which are intended to have no effect as long as we live are no better than dead Sacrifices and it may be questioned whether they will be brought into the account of our lives if we did no good while we lived The case is different as to those who did all the good they could while they lived and when they saw they could live no longer took care to do good after death such surviving Charities as these prolong our lives and add daily to our account when such Men are removed into the other World they are doing good in this would still they have a Stock a going below the increase and improvements of which will follow them into the other World Men who have been charitable all their lives may prolong their Charity after death and this will be brought to the Account of their Lives but I cannot see how a Charity which commences after death can be called doing good while we live and then it cannot belong to the Account of our Lives all that can be said for it is this That they make their Wills whereby they bequeath these Charities while they live and therefore their bequeathing these Charities is an act of their Lives but they never intend they shall take place while they live but after their death and when they never intend their Charity to be an act of their Lives I know not why God should account it so These Death-bed Charities are too like a Death-bed Repentance Men seem to give their Estates to God and the Poor just as they part with their Sins when they can keep them no longer This is much such a Charity as it is Devotion to bequeath our dead Bodies to the Church or Chancel which we would never visit while we lived But yet as I have already intimated this is the only way to prolong our Lives and to have an increasing Account after death to lay the foundations of some great good to the World which shall out live us which like Seed sown in the Earth shall spring up and yeild a plentiful Harvest while we sleep sweetly in the dust such as the religious Education of our Children and Families which may propagate itself in the World and last many Ages after we are dead the Endowment of Publick Schools and Hospitals in a word whatever is for the Relief of the Necessities or for the Instruction and good Government of Mankind when we are gone To do good while we live and to lay designs of great good to future Generations will both come into our Account and this may extend the Account of our
a Martyr this Man also would go to Heaven without actual Holiness of Life as a baptized Penitent who dies immediately after his Baptism shall And this seems to me to give the best account of the case of the Penitent Thief upon the Cross which one example has encouraged so many Sinners to delay their Repentance to the last minute and has destroyed so many Souls by such delays His case seems to be this It is probable he had heard of Christ and the fame of his great Miracles before and that opinion some had of him that he was that Messias whom God had promised to send into the World for we can hardly think that any Man who lived in those days should never have heard of Christ whose fame went through the whole Nation but yet the course of life this Thief lead gave him no great curiosity to inquire into such matters till he was apprehended for Robbery and condemned to die at the same time with Christ this extraordinary accident made him more curiously inquire after him and learn all the circumstances of his apprehension and trial and usage and behaviour and answers especially when he saw him and was to die with him and in short he observed so much as convinced him that he was the true Messias though he saw him nailed in so shameful a manner to the Cross. Now if this was his case and we must suppose this or something like it unless we will say that he was miraculously inspired upon the Cross with the Faith of Christ without knowing any thing of him before which has no foundation in the Story and is without any president or example I say if this was his case according to the principles laid down we must grant that if this Thief had renounced his wicked course of Life and professed his Faith in Christ and been baptized in his Name though he had immediately suffered upon the Cross he must have gone directly to Heaven or Paradise as Christ promised him he should by vertue of the remission of all his sins in Baptism Nay we must grant farther that if instead of Baptism he had at that time died a Martyr for the profession of his Faith in Christ this would have supplied the place of Baptism and translated him to Paradise All then that we have to enquire is whether his Confession of Christ upon the Cross might not as well supply the want of Water-baptism as Martyrdom nay whether it were not equivalent to Martyrdom it self and might not reasonably be accepted by our Saviour as such Water-baptism he could not have a Martyr he could not die for he died a Malefactor but he confessed his Faith in Christ when he saw him hanging upon the Cross which was a more glorious Act of Faith than to have died upon the Cross for him He confessed Christ when his own Disciples fled from him and when Peter himself denied him and discovered his glory through the meanest disguise that ever it was concealed under even in this World And why should not this pass for the Faith and Confession of Martyrdom And then the Thief upon the Cross was saved as by Baptism which is No tthe putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards GOD 1 Pet. 3. 21. Which description of Baptism gives us a plain reason why Martyrdom should supply the place of Baptism and is as good a reason why the Thief 's Confession of Christ upon the Cross should do so This example then of the Thief upon the Cross is no reasonable encouragement to any baptized Christian to live a wicked Life and delay his Repentance till the hour of Death in hopes of being saved at last as he was for he was saved as new repenting Converts are by Baptism not as baptized Sinners hope to be by a Death-bed Sorrow and Remorse of Concience And yet this is the only example which with any shew of reason is alledged to prove the sufficiency of a Death-bed Repentance for the Parable of the Labourers who were called to work in the Vineyard at different hours some early in the morning others at the third the sixth the eleventh hour of the day is nothing at all to this purpose The several hours of the day in that Parable do not signifie the several hours of Mens lives but the different ages of the World and therefore those Labourers who are called into the Vineyard about the eleventh hour of the World that is towards the end or in the last age of the World might be called at the beginning of their lives and work on to the end of them for the design of that Parable is to shew that the Gentiles who were called into the Vine-yard or received into the Church of Christ towards the conclusion of the World should be admitted to equal Priviledges and Rewards with the Iews who were God's ancient People and had been called into the Vine-yard early in the morning which occasioned their murmuring against the good Man of the House as we know the Iews murmured upon this account and nothing more prejudiced them against the Gospel of our Saviour than that the Gentiles were received into the Church without Circumcision The same thing our Saviour represents in the Parable of the Prodigal the return of the Prodigal to his Father's House is the Conversion of the Gentiles who were the younger Brother and had been a great Prodigal for many Ages the elder Brother who always lived at home with his Father was the Iewish Church but when this young Prodigal was received by his Father with Feasting and Musick and all the expressions of Joy the elder Brother grew jealous of it and thought himself much injured by his Father's fondness for the returning Prodigal and refused to come in and bear his part in the Solemnity as the Iews rejected the Gospel because the Gentiles were received into the Church And that this must be the true meaning of the Parable of the Labourers appears from this that those who were called into the Vine-yard at the eleventh hour received a reward equal to those who had born the heat and burden of the day which is agreeable enough if we expound it of different Ages of the Church for there is great reason why the Gentiles though they came later into the Vine-yard should be made at least equal with the Iews who were God's ancient People but if we expound this of entring into the Vine-yard at different ages of our life it seems very unequal that those who begin a life of Vertue just at the conclusion of their lives should be equally rewarded with those who have spent their whole lives in the service of God that is that these who do very little good shall receive as great a reward as those who do a hundred times as much which is a direct contradiction to the scope and design of our Saviour's Parables about the Pounds and Talents 25 Matt. 14