them Blessed who believed his Resurrection upon the forcible evidence of their own Senses but Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed They might be Happy in the Effects of that Faith but there is not praise no reward belongs to that Faith which is wrought in Man by so violent and irresistable an evidence It was the great commendation of Abraham's Faith that against hope he believed in hope he believed the promise of God concerning a thing in it self very improbable but it is no commendation at all to believe the things which we have seen because they admit of no manner of dispute no Objection can be offered to shake our assent unless we will run to the extremity of Scepticism for if we will believe any thing at all we must yield to the Evidence of Sense This does so violently enforce our assent that there can be no Virtue in such a Faith And as this would take away the Virtue of Faith so it would very much lessen that of our Obedience It is hardly to be imagined that any Man who had seen the Blessed condition of good Men in another World and been an Eye-witness of the intolerable Torments of Sinners should ever after be tempted knowingly to do any thing that would deprive him of that Happiness or bring him into that place of Torment Such a sight could not chuse but affect a Man as long as he lived and leave such impressions upon his mind of the indispensable necessity of a Holy life and of the infinite danger of a wicked course that we might sooner believe that all the Men in the World should conspire to kill one another than that such a Man by consenting to any deliberate Act of Sin should wilfully throw himself into those flames No his Mind would be continually haunted with those Furies he had seen Tormenting Sinners in another World and the fearful Shrieks and Outcries of Miserable Souls would be perpetually ringing in his Ears and the Man would have so lively and terrible an imagination of the danger he was running himself upon that no Temptation would be strong enough to conquer his fears and to make him careless of his life and actions after he had once seen how fearful a thing it was to fall into the hands of the living God So that in this case the Reason of Mens obedience would be so violent that the virtue of it must be very little for what praise is due to any Man not to do those things which none but a perfect mad Man would do For certainly that Man must be besides himself that could by any Temptation be seduced to live a wicked life after he had seen the state of good and bad Men in the other World the glorious Rewards of Holiness and Virtue and the dismal event of a vitious and sinful course God hath designed this Life for the Trial of our Virtue and the exercise of our obedience but there would hardly be any place for this if there were a free and easie passage for us into the other World to see the true state of things there What argument would it be of any Mans virtue to forbear sinning after he had been in Hell and seen the miserable end of Sinners But I proceed to the III. And Last Observation namely That notwithstanding Faith be an inferiour degree of Assent yet it is a Principle of sufficient force and power to Govern our lives we walk by Faith Now that the belief of any thing may have its Effect upon us it is requisite that we be satisfied of these Two things 1. Of the Certainty and of the great Concernment of the thing for if the thing be altogether uncertain it will not move us at all we shall do nothing towards the obtaining of it if it be good nor for the avoiding and preventing of it if it be evil and if we are certain of the thing yet if we apprehend it to be of no great Moment and Concernment we shall be apt to slight it as not worth our regard but the Rewards and Punishments of another world which the Gospel propounds to our Faith are fitted to work upon our Minds both upon account of the Certainty and Concernment of them For 1. We have sufficient Assurance of the Truth of these things as much as we are well capable of in this state Concerning things future and at a distance we have the dictates of our Reason arguing us into this Perswasion from the consideration of the Justice of the Divine Providence and from the promiscuous and unequal Administration of things in this world from whence wise men in all ages have been apt to conclude that there will be another state of things after this life wherein rewards and punishments shall be equally distributed We have the general consent of Mankind in this matter and to assure us that these Reasonings are true we have a most credible Revelation of these things God having sent his Son from Heaven to declare it to us and given us a sensible demonstration of the thing in his Resurrection from the dead and his visible Aseension into Heaven so that there is no kind of evidence wanting that the thing is capable of but only our own sense and experience of these things of which we are not capable in this present state And there is no Objection against all this but what will bring all things into uncertainty which do not come under our Senses and which we our selves have not seen Nor is there any considerable Interest to hinder Men from the Belief of these things or to make them hesitate about them for as for the other World if at last there should prove to be no such thing our Condition after Death will be the same with the Condition of those who disbelieve these things because all will be extinguish'd by Death but if things fall out otherwise as most undoubtedly they will and our Souls after this Life do pass into a State of Everlasting Happiness or Misery then our great Interest plainly lies in preparing our selves for this State and there is no other way to secure the great Concernments of another World but by believing those things to be true and governing all the Actions of our Lives by this Belief For as for the Interests of this Life they are but short and transitory and consequently of no Consideration in comparison of the things which are Eternal and yet as I have often told you setting aside the case of Persecution for Religion there is no real Interest of this World but it may be as well promoted and pursued to as great Advantage nay usually to a far greater by him that believes these things and lives accordingly than by any other Person For the Belief of the Rewards and Punishments of another World is the greatest Motive and Encouragement to Virtue and as all Vice is naturally attended with some temporal Inconvenience so the Practice of all Christian
the Ethiopians had invaded Egypt and almost over-run it that Pharaoh was directed by the Oracle at Memphis to make Moses his General who by his extraordinary Conduct and Courage overthrew the Ethiopians and drave them out of Egypt This Moses did not think fit to relate of himself but St. Stephen seems to allude to it when he says that he was mighty in word and deed And then it follows and when he was full forty years old it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel that is when he was at full maturity of judgment and in the hight of his Prosperity and Reputation he quitted the Court of Egypt and went to visit his afflicted Brethren and chose rather to take part with them in their sufferings than to accept those great offers that were made to him There is likewise another passage in Josephus concerning Moses which seems to be a forerunner of the contempt which he shewed afterward of the Crown of Egypt That when Moses was about three years old Thermuthis the Daughter of Pharaoh brought the Child to him who took him in his arms and put his Diadem upon his Head But Moses took it off and cast it to the ground and trampled it under his feet This was but a childish act and they who saw it would easily believe that for all his childish contempt of it then it it were put upon his Head in good earnest when he came to be a Man he would hold it on faster and use it with more respect And it is not improbable but that the Apostle might have some regard to this when he says that Moses when he came to Years intimating that he did not only trample upon the Diadem of Pharaoh when he was a Child but when he was come to years and was capable of judging better of those things he refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter But before I proceed any farther I cannot but take notice of an objection which may seem to reflect greatly upon the integrity of Moses Can we think him so very conscientious a Man who persuaded the people of Israel and pretended God's direction in the case to cheat the Egyptians of their Jewels under a fraudulent pretence of borrowing them There is some difficulty in the thing as at first sight it appears And yet I doubt not with your favourable attention and free from prejudice to vindicate Moses clearly in this matter And I shall not insist upon that which is commonly and truly said in this case That God who is the supream Lord of all things may transfer the Rights of Men from one to another because the objection doth not lye against God's Right to take away from any Man what he hath given him but against the fraudulent manner of doing it which seems unworthy of God to command or encourage Now this matter I think is capable of another and much clearer answer which in short is this and grounded upon the History as we find it related Ex. 12. The Providence of God did it seems design by this way to make some reparation to the Israelites for the tyrannical usage which they had received from the Egyptians And that first as the Text expresly tells us in giving them favour with the Egyptians who in truth for their own ends and to get rid of such troublesome Guests were disposed to lend them any thing they had Thus far all is right Here is nothing but fair borrowing and lending And if the Israelites acquired a right to those things afterwards there was then no obligation to restitution Let us see then how the Providence of God brought this about Namely by permitting the Egyptians afterwards without cause and after leave given them to depart to persue them with a design to have destroyed them by which Hostility and Perfidiousness they plainly forfeited their Right to what they had only lent before For this hostile attempt which would have warranted the Israelites to have spoiled them of their Jewels if they had been in the possession of the Egyptians did certainly warrant them to keep them when they had them and by this means they became rightful possessors of what they had only by Loan before and could not have detained without fraud and injustice if this hostility of the Egyptians had not given them a new title and clear right to them But I proceed to the third thing I proposed which was to vindicate the prudence and reasonableness of this choice And in speaking to this I shall abstract from the particular case of Moses and shew in general That it is a prudent and reasonable thing to prefer even an afflicted state of Piety and Virtue before the greatest pleasures and prosperity of a sinful course And this will appear if we consider these two things 1. The sufferings of good Men upon account of Religion together with the the reward of them 2. The temporary enjoyment of sin with the mischiefs and inconveniencies consequent upon them 1. The sufferings of good Men upon the account of Religion together with the reward of them This Moses had in his eye when he made this choice for therefore he chose to suffer Affliction with the People of God rather than to enjoy the Pleasures of sin which are but for a Season because he had respect to the recompence of reward And tho he had but a very imperfect discovery in comparison of the future state yet it seems he had so much assurance of the goodness of God as firmly to believe that he should be no loser at the last by any thing that he suffered for God and Religion Indeed if there were no life after this and we had no expectation beyond this world the wisest thing we could do would be to enjoy as much of the present contentment of this world as we could make our selves Masters of But if we be designed for immortality and shall be unspeakably happy or intorably miserable in another world according as we have demeaned our selves in this life then certainly it is reasonable that we should take the greatest care of the longest duration and be content to dispense with some present inconveniences for an eternal felicity and be willing to labour and take pains for a little while that we may be happy forever And this is accounted prudence in the account of the wisest Men to part with a little in present for a far greater future advantage But the disproportion betwixt Time and Eternity is so vast that did we but firmly believe that we shall live for ever nothing in this world could reasonably be thought too good to part withall or too grievous to suffer for the obtaining of a blessed Immortality And upon this belief and persuasion of a mighty reward beyond all their present sufferings and that they should be infinite gainers at the last the Primitive Christians were kept from sinking under their present sufferings and fortified against all that the
malice and cruelty of the world could do unto them And if we would consider all things together and mind the invisible things of another world as well as the things which are seen we should easily discern that he who suffers for God and Religion does not renounce his happiness but put it out to Interest upon terms of greatest advantage and does wisely consider his own best and and most lasting interest This is the First II. This will yet more evidently appear if we consider the temporary injoyments of sin together with the mischiefs and inconveniencies attending and consequent upon them That as to the nature of them they are mixt and imperfect as to the duration of them they are short and but for a season and as to the final issue and consquence of them that they end in misery and sorrow 1. As to the nature of them all the pleasures and enjoyments of sin are mixt and imperfect A wicked Man may make a shew of mirth and pleasure but even in laughter his heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness There can be no true and sincere pleasure in any sinful and vitious course tho it be attended with all the Pomp and Splendor of outward Happiness and Prosperity for where ever sin and vice is there must be guilt and whereever guilt is the mind will be restless and unquiet For there are two very troublesome and tormenting passions which are naturally consequent upon guilt Shame and Fear Shame arising from the apprehension of the danger of being discovered and Fear from the apprehension of the danger of being punisht And these do continually haunt the sinner and fill him with inward horror and confusion in his most secret retirements And if sin were attended with no other trouble but the guilt of it a wise Man would not commit it if it were for no other reason but meerly for the peace and quiet of his own mind 2. The enjoyments of sin as to the duration of them are but short Upon this consideration Moses set no great price and value upon them but preferred affliction and suffering in good company and in a good cause before the temporary enjoyments of sin If the enjoyments of this world were perfect in their nature and had no mixture of trouble and sorrow in them Yet this would be a great abatement of them that they are of so short and uncertain a continuance The pleasure of most sins expires with the act of them and when that is done the delight vanisheth I cannot deny but there are several worldly advantages to be purchased by sin which may perhaps be of a longer continuance as Riches and Honours the common purchase of Covetousness and Ambition and of that long train of inferiour Vices which attend upon them and minister unto them but even these enjoyments are in their own nature of an uncertain continuance and much more uncertain for being purchased by indirect and ill means But if the enjoyment of these things were sure to be of the same date with our lives yet how short a duration is that compared with Eternity make the utmust allowance to these things that can be yet we can but enjoy them whilst we are in this world When we come into the world of spirits it will signifie nothing to us to have been rich or great in this world When we shall stand before that highest Tribunal it will not avail us in the least to have been Princes and great Men and Judges on the Earth the poorest Man that ever lived in this world will then be upon equal terms with the bigest of us all For all mankind shall then stand upon a level and those civil distinctions of rich and poor of base and honourable which seem now so considerable and make such a glaring difference amongst Men in this world shall all then be laid aside and moral differences shall only take place All the distinctions which will then be made will be betwixt the good and the bad the righteous and the wicked and the difference betwixt a good and bad Man will be really much greater than ever it seemed to be betwixt the highest and meanest persons in this world And if this be so why should we value the enjoyments of sin at so high a rate which at the best are only considerable and that only in the imagination of vain Men during our abode in this world but bear no price at all in that Country where we must live for ever Or if they did we cannot carry them along with us The guilt of them indeed will follow us with a vengance the injustice and all the ill arts we have used for the getting or keeping of them especially if at once we have made Shipwreck of Faith and a good Conscience If we have changed our Religion or which is much worse if continuing in the profession of it we have betrayed it and the interest of it for the gaining or securing of any of these things we shall find to our sorrow that tho the enjoyments of sin were but for a season the guilt of it will never leave us nor forsake us but will stick close to us and make us miserable for ever But this belongs to the III. Thing I proposed to speak to namely The final issue and consequence of a sinful course which is misery and sorrow many times in this world but most certainly in the next 1. In this world the very best issue and consequence of a sinful course that we can imagin is Repentance And even this hath a great deal of sensible pain and trouble in it for it is many times especially after great sins and a long continuance in them accompanied with much regret and horror with deep and piercing sorrow with dismal and despairing thoughts of God's mercy and with fearful apprehensions of his wrath and vengeance So that if this were the worst consequence of sin which indeed is the best no Man that considers and calculates things wisely would purchase the pleasure of any sin at the price of so much anguish and sorrow as a true and deep repentance will cost him especially since a true repentance does in many cases oblige Men to the restitution of that which hath been gained by sin if it hath been got by the injury of another And this consideration quite takes away the pleasure and profit of an ill gotten Estate Better never to have had it than to be obliged to refund it A wise Man will forbear the most pleasant meats if he know before-hand that they will make him deadly sick and that he shall never be at ease till he have brought them up again No Man that believes the threatnings of God and the judgment of another world would ever sin but that he hopes to retrieve all again by repentance But it is the greatest folly in the world to commit any sin upon this hope for that is to please ones self for the
present in hopes to have more trouble afterwards than the pleasure comes to But especially no Man would be guilty of an act of injustice and oppression in hopes to repent of it afterwards because there can be no repentance for such sins without restitution and 't is perfect madness for a Man to run the hazard of his Soul to get an Estate in hopes of restoring it again for so he must do that truly repents of such a sin But 2. In the other world the final issue and consequence of all the pleasures of sin unrepented of will certainly be misery and sorrow How quietly soever a sinner may pass through this world or out of it misery will certainly overtake him in the next unspeakable and eternal misery arising from an apprehension of the greatest loss and a sense of the sharpest pain and those sadly aggravated by the remembrance of past pleasure and the despair of future ease From a sad apprehension and melancholy reflection upon his inestimable loss In the other world the sinner shall be eternally separated from God who is the fountain of happiness This is the first part of that miserable sentence which shall be past upon the wicked depart from me Sinners are not now sensible of the joyes of Heaven and the happiness of that state and therefore are not capable of estimating the greatness of such a loss But this stupidity and insensibleness of sinners continues only during this present state which affords Men variety of objects and pleasures to divert and entertain them But when they are once enter'd upon the other world they will then have nothing else to take up their thoughts but the sad condition into which by their own wilful negligence and folly they have plunged themselves They shall then lift up their eyes and with the rich Man in the parable at once see the happiness of others and feel their own misery and torment But this is not all Besides the apprehension of so great a loss they shall be sensible of the sorest and sharpest pains and how grievous those shall be we may conjecture by what the Scripture says of them in general That they are the effects of a mighty displeasure of Anger and Omnipotence met together far greater than can be described by any pains and sufferings which we are acquainted withall in this world For who knows the power of Gods anger and the utmost of what Omnipotent Justice can do to sinners It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God One would think this were misery enough and needed no frather aggravation but yet it hath two terrible ones from the remembrance of past pleasures and the despair of any future ease and remedy The remembrance of past pleasure makes present sufferings more sharp and sensible For as nothing commends pleasure more and gives a quicker relish to happiness than precedent pain and suffering for perhaps there is not a greater pleasure in the world than in the suddain ease which a Man finds after a sharp fit of the Stone so nothing enrageth affliction more and sets a keener edg upon misery than to pass into great pain immediately out of a state of ease and pleasure This was the stinging aggravation of the rich Man's torment That in his life time he had received his good things and had faired so deliciously every day But the greatest aggravation of all is the despair of any future ease and remedy The duration of this misery is set forth to us in Scripture by such expressions as do signifie the longest and most interminable duration Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire Matth. 25. and Mark 9. 43. Where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched And in the Revel it is said that the wicked shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever without intermission and without end And this surely is the perfection of misery for a Man to lye under the greatest torments and to be in despair of ever finding the least ease Let us now compare things together on the one hand the sufferings of good Men for a good Conscience and the reward that follows them and on the other hand the enjoyments of sin with the mischief and misery that attends them and will certainly overtake them in this world or the next and then we shall easily discern which of these is to be preferred in a wise Man's choice And indeed the choice is so very plain that a Man must be strangely forsaken of his reason and blinded by sense who does not prefer that course of life which will probably make him happier in this world but most certainly in the next There remains now only the Fourth and last particular to be spoken to viz. Supposing this choice to be reasonable to enquire whence it comes to pass that so many make a quite contrary choice How is it that the greatest part of mankind are so widely mistaken as to prefer the temporary enjoyments of sin before Conscience and Religion especially if it be attended with great afflictions and sufferings And of this I shall give you as brief an account as I can and so conclude this Discourse This wrong choice generally proceeds from one or both of these two causes from want of Faith or from want of consideration or of both 1. One great reason why Men make so imprudent a choice is unbelief either the want of Faith or the weakness of it Either Men do not believe the recompences of another life or they are not so firmly persuaded of the reality of them If Men do not at all believe these things there is no foundation for Religion for he that cometh unto God that is he that thinks of being religious must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him as the Apostle reasons in the beginning of this Chapter But I hope there are but few that are or can be Infidels as to these great and fundamental principles of Religion But it is to be feared that the Faith of a great many is but weak and wavering their Faith is rather negative they do not disbelieve these things but they are not firmly persuaded of them their Faith is rather an opinion than a rooted and well grounded persuasion and therefore no wonder if it be not so strong and vigorous a principle of action and like the Faith of Abraham and Moses and other worthies mentioned in this Chapter For where Faith is in its full strength and vigour it will have proportionable effects upon the resolutions and wills of Men But where it is but weak it is of little or no efficacy And this is the true reason why so many forsake Religion and cleave to this present world and when it comes to the push choose rather to sin than to suffer and will rather quit the truth than endure persecution for it These are they whom our Saviour describes who receive receive the
small Dust upon the Balance What Temptation of this World can stand against that Argument of our Saviour if it be seriously weighed and considered What is a Man profited if he gain the whole World and lose his own Soul or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul If we would consider Things impartially and weigh them in a just and equal Balance the Things which concern our Bodies and this present Life are of no Consideration in comparison of the great and vast Concernments of our immortal Souls and the happy or miserable Condition of our Bodies and Souls to all Eternity And Religion is a Matter of this vast Concernment and therefore not to be bargained away and parted with by us for the greatest Things this World can offer There is no greater Sign of a sordid Spirit than to put a high Value upon Things of little Worth and no greater Mark of Folly than to make an unequal Bargain to part with Things of greatest Price for a slender and trifling Consideration As if a Man of great Fortune and Estate should sell the Inheritance of it for a Picture which when he hath it will not perhaps yield so much as will maintain him for one Year The Folly is so much the greater in Things of infinitely greater Value as for a Man to quit God and Religion to sell the Truth and his Soul and to part with his Everlasting Inheritance for a convenient Service for a good Customer and some present Advantage in his Trade and Profession or indeed for any Condition which the foolish Language of this World cal's a high Place or a great Preferment The Things which these Men part with upon these cheap Terms God and his Truth and Religion are to those who understand themselves and the just Value of their Immortal Souls Things of inestimable Worth and not to be parted with by a considerate Man for any Price that this World can bid And those who are to be bought out of their Religion upon such low Terms and so easily parted from it 't is much to be feared that they have little or no Religion to hold fast 2. As we are to hold fast the Profession of our Faith without wavering against the Temptations and Allurements of this World so likewise against the Terrors of it Fear is a Passion of great force and if Men be not very resolute and constant will be apt to stagger them and to move them from their stedfastness And therefore when the Case of Suffering and Persecution for the Truth happens we had need to hold fast the Profession of our Faith Our Saviour in the Parable of the Sower tells us that there were many that heard the Word and with joy received it but when Persecution and Tribulation arose because of the Word presently they were offended And though blessed be God this be not now our Case yet there was a Time when it was the general Case of Christians in the first beginning of Christianity and for several Ages after though with some Intermission and Intervals of Ease It was then a general Rule and the common Expectation of Christians That through many Tribulations they must enter into the Kingdom of God and that if any Man will live Godly in Christ Jesus he must suffer Persecution And in several Ages since those Primitive Times the sincere Professors of Religion have in divers places been exposed to most grievous Sufferings and Persecutions for the Truth And even at this day in several Places the faithful Servants of God are exercised with the sharpest and sorest Tryals that perhaps were ever heard of in any Age and for the sake of God and the constant Profession of his true Religion are tormented and killed all the day long and are accounted as Sheep for the slaughter It is Their hard Lot to be called to these cruel and bitter Sufferings and Our happy Opportunity to be call'd upon for their Relief Those of them I mean that have escaped that terrible Storm and Tempest and have taken Refuge and Sanctuary here among us and out of His Majesty's great Humanity and Goodness are by his Publick Letters recommended to the Charity of the whole Nation by the Name of Distressed Protestants Let us consider how much easier Our Lot and Our Duty is than Theirs as much as it is easier to compassionate the Sufferings and to relieve the Distresses of Others than to be such Sufferers and in such Distress Our Selves Let us make Their Case our Own and then we our selves will be the best Judges how it is fit for us to demean our selves towards them and to what degree we ought to extend our Charity and Compassion to them Let us put on their Case and Circumstances and suppose that We were the Sufferers and had fled to Them for Refuge the same Pity and Commiseration the same tender Regard and Consideration of our sad Case the same liberal and effectual Relief that we should desire and expect and be glad to have shewn and afforded to our selves let us give to them and then I am sure they will want no fitting Comfort and Support from us We enjoy blessed be the Goodness of God to us great Peace and Plenty and Freedom from Evil and Suffering And surely one of the best Means to have these Blessings continued to us and our Tranquility prolonged is to consider and relieve those who want the Blessings which we enjoy and the readiest way to provoke God to deprive us of these Blessings is to shut up the Bowels of our Compassion from our Distressed Brethren God can easily change the Scene and make our Sufferings if not in the same kind yet in one kind or other equal to theirs and then we shall remember the Afflictions of Joseph and say as his Brethren did when they fell into Trouble We are verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his Soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this Distress come upon us God alone knows what Storms the Devil may yet raise in the World before the End of it And therefore it concerns all Christians in all Times and Places who have taken upon them the Profession of Christ's Religion to consider well before-hand and to calculate the Dangers and Sufferings it may expose them to and to arm our selves with Resolution and Patience against the fiercest Assaults of Temptation considering the Shortness of all Temporal Afflictions and Sufferings in comparison of the Eternal and Glorious Reward of them and the Lightness of them too in comparison of the endless and intolerable Torments of another World to which every Man exposeth himself who forsakes God and renounceth his Truth and wounds his Conscience to avoid Temporal Sufferings And though Fear in many Cases especially if it be of Death and extream Suffering be a great Excuse for several Actions because it may Cadere in constantem virum happen to a resolute Man Yet in
a much clearer revelation and much greater assurance than former Ages and Generations had and the firm belief and perswasion of this is the great Motive and Argument to a Holy life The hope which is set before us of obtaining the Happiness and the fear of incurring the Misery of another world This made the Primitive Christians with so much patience to bear the Sufferings and Persecutions with so much constancy to venture upon the dangers and inconveniencies which the love of God and Religion exposed them to Under the former Dispensation of the Law tho good Men received good hopes of the Rewards of another life yet these things were but obscurely revealed to them and the great inducements of Obedience were Temporal Rewards and Punishments the promises of long life and peace and plenty and prosperity in that good Land which God had given them and the threatnings of War and Famine and Pestilence and being delivered into Captivity But now under the Gospel Life and Immortality are brought to light and the great Arguments that bear sway with Christians are the Promises of Everlasting Life and the Threatnings of Eternal Misery and the firm Belief and Persuasion of these is now the great Principle that governs the Lives and Actions of good Men for what will not Men do that are really persuaded that as they do demean themselves in this World it will fare with them in the other That the Wicked shall go into everlasting Punishment and the Righteous into Life Eternal I proceed to the II. Observation namely That Faith is a Degree of Assent inferiour to that of Sense This is intimated in the Opposition betwixt Faith and Sight We walk by Faith and not by Sight that is we believe these things and are confidently persuaded of the truth of them tho we never saw them and consequently cannot possibly have that Degree of Assurance concerning the Joys of Heaven and the Torments of Hell which those have who enjoy the One and endure the Other There are different Degrees of Assurance concerning things arising from the different Degrees of Evidence we have for them The highest Degree of Evidence we have for any thing is our own Sense and Experience and this is so firm and strong that it is not to be shaken by the utmost Pretence of a Rational Demonstration Men will trust their own Senses and Experience against any subtilty of Reason whatsoever But there are inferiour degrees of Assurance concerning things as the Testimony and Authority of Persons every way credible and this Assurance we have in this state concerning the things of another World we believe with great Reason that we have the Testimony of God concerning them which is the highest kind of Evidence in it self and we have all the reasonable assurance we can desire that God hath testified these things and this is the utmost assurance which things future and at a distance are capable of But yet it is an unreasonable obstinacy to deny that this falls very much short of that degree of assurance which those Persons have concerning these things who are now in the other World and have the Sense and Experience of these things and this is not only intimated here in the Text in the Opposition of Faith and Sight but is plainly exprest in other Texts of Scripture 1 Cor. 13. 9 10. We know now but in part but when that which is perfect is come that which is in part shall be done away That degree of knowledge and assurance which we have in this Life is very imperfect in comparison to what we shall have hereafter and Verse 12. We now see as through a Glass darkly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in a Riddle in which there is always a great deal of Obscurity all which Expressions are certainly intended by way of abatement and diminution to the certainty of Faith because it is plain that by that which is in part or imperfect the Apostle means Faith and Hope which he tells us shall cease when that which is perfect meaning Vision and Sight is come We see likewise in Experience that the Faith and Hope of the best Christians in this Life is accompanied with doubting concerning these things and all doubting is a degree of uncertainty but those blessed Souls who are entred upon the Possession of Glory and Happiness and those miserable Wretches who lye groaning under the Wrath of God and the Severity of his Justice cannot possibly if they would have any doubt concerning the Truth and Reality of these things But however contentious Men may dispute against common Sense this is so plain a Truth that I will not labour in the farther Proof of it nor indeed is it reasonable while we are in this state to expect that degree of assurance concerning the Rewards and Punishments of another Life which the sight and sensible experience of them would give us and that upon these Two Accounts 1. Because our present state will not admit it and 2. If it would it is not reasonable we should have it 1. Our present state will not admit it for while we are in this World it is not possible we should have that sensible Experiment and Tryal how things are in the other The things of the other World are remote from us and far out of our Sight and we cannot have any experimental knowledge of them till we our selves enter into that state Those who are already past into it know how things are those happy Souls who live in the reviving presence of God and are possest of those joys which we cannot now conceive understand these things in another manner and have a more perfect assurance concerning them than it is possible for any Man to have in this World and those wretched and miserable Spirits who feel the vengeance of God and are plunged into the Horrors of Eternal Darkness do believe upon irresistable evidence and have other kind of Convictions of the Reality of that state and the insupportable Misery of it than any Man is capable of in this World 2. If our present state would admit of this high degree of assurance it is not fit and reasonable that we should have it such an over-powering evidence would quite take away the virtue of Faith and much lessen that of Obedience Put the case that every Man some considerable time before his departure out of this Life were permitted to visit the other World to assure him how things are there to view the Mansions of the Blessed and to survey the dark and loathsome Prisons of the Damned to hear the lamentable outcrys of Miserable and Despairing Souls and to see the inconceivable Anguish and Torments they are in after this what virtue would it be in any Man to believe these things He that had been there and seen them could not dis-believe them if he would Faith in this case would not be virtue but necessity and therefore it is observable that our Saviour doth not Pronounce
Virtues doth in its own Nature tend both to the Welfare of Particular Persons and to the Peace and Prosperity of Mankind But that which ought to weigh very much with us is That we have abundantly more Assurance of the Recompence of another World than we have of many things in this World which yet have a greater Influence upon our Actions and govern the Lives of the most prudent and considerate Men. Men generally hazard their Lives and Estates upon Terms of greater Uncertainty than the Assurance which we have of another World Men venture to take Physick upon probable Grounds of the Integrity and Skill of their Physician and yet the want of either of these may hazard their Lives and Men take Physick upon greater Odds for it certainly causeth Pain and Sickness and doth but uncertainly procure and recover Health the Patient is sure to be made sick but not certain to be made well and yet the Danger of being worse if not of dying on the one Hand and the Hope of Success and Recovery on the other make this Hazard and Trouble reasonable Men venture their whole Estates to Places which they never saw and that there are such Places they have only the concurrent Testimony and Agreement of Men nay perhaps have only spoken with them that have spoken with those that have been there No Merchant ever insisted upon the Evidence of a Miracle to be wrought to satisfie him that there were such Places as the East and West-Indies before he would venture to Trade thither And yet this Assurance God hath been pleased to give the World of a state beyond the Grave and of a blessed Immortality in another Life Now what can be the Reason that so slender Evidence so small a degree of Assurance will serve to encourage Men to seek after the things of this World with great Care and Industry and yet a great deal more will not suffice to put them effectually upon looking after the great Concernments of another World which are infinitely more considerable No other Reason of this can be given but that Men are partial in their Affections towards these things It is plain they have not the same Love for God and Religion which they have for this World and the Advantages of it and therefore it is that a less degree of Assurance will engage them to seek after the one than the other and yet the Reason is much stronger on the other side For the greater the Benefit and Good is which is offered to us we should be the more eager to seek after it and should be content to venture upon less Probability Upon excessive Odds a Man would venture upon very small Hopes for a mighty Advantage a Man would be content to run a great Hazard of his Labour and Pains upon little Assurance Where a Man's Life is concern'd every Suspicion of Danger will make a Man careful to avoid it And will nothing affright Men from Hell unless God carry them thither and shew them the place of Torments and the Flames of that Fire which shall never be quenched I do not speak this as if these things had not abundant Evidence I have shewn that they have but to convince Men how unreasonable and cruelly partial they are about the Concernments of their Souls and their Eternal Happiness 2. Supposing these things to be real and certain they are of infinite Concernment to us For what can concern us more than that Eternal and Unchangeable State in which we must be fixt and abide for ever If so vast a Concern will not move us and have no Influence upon the Government of our Lives and Actions we do not deserve the Name of Reasonable Creatures What Consideration can be set before Men who are not touched with the Sense of so great an Interest as that of our Happy or Miserable Being to all Eternity Can we be so solicitous and careful about the Concernment of a few Days and is it nothing to us what becomes of us for ever Are we so tenderly concerned to avoid Poverty and Disgrace Persecution and Suffering in this World and shall we not much more flee from the wrath which is to come and endeavour to escape the damnation of Hell Are the slight and transitory Enjoyments of this World worth so much Thought and Care And is an Eternal Inheritance in the Heavens not worth the looking after As there is no Proportion betwixt the things which are Temporal and the things which are Eternal so we ought in all Reason to be infinitely more concerned for the One than for the Other The proper Inference from all this Discourse is That we would endeavour to strengthen in our selves this great Principle of a Christian Life the Belief of another World by representing to our selves all those Arguments and Considerations which may confirm us in this Perswasion The more reasonable our Faith is and the surer grounds it is built upon the more firm it will abide when it comes to the tryal against all the impressions of temptations and assaults of Persecution If our Faith of another World be only a strong imagination of these things so soon as tribulation ariseth it will wither because it hath no root in it self Upon this account the Apostle so often exhorts Christians to endeavour to be establisht in the Truth to be rooted and grounded in the Faith that when Persecution comes they may continue stedfast and unmovable The firmness of our Belief will have a great influence upon our Lives if we be stedfast and unmovable in our perswasion of these things we shall be abundant in the work of the Lord. The Apostle joins these together 1 Cor. 15. 58. Wherefore my beloved Brethren be ye stedfast and unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Stedfast and unmovable in what In the belief of a blessed Resurrection which the more firmly any Man believes the more active and industrious will he be in the Work and Service of God And that our Faith may have a constant and powerful influence upon our Lives we should frequently revolve in our Minds the thoughts of another World and of that vast Eternity which we shall shortly launch into The great disadvantage of the Arguments fetcht from another world is this That these things are at a distance from us and not sensible to us and therefore we are not apt to be so affected with them Present and sensible things weigh down all other Considerations And therefore to balance this disadvantage we should often have these Thoughts in our Minds and inculcate upon our selves the certainty of these things and the infinite concernment of them we should reason thus with our selves if these things be true and will certainly be why should they not be to me as if they were actually present Why should not I always live as if Heaven were open to my view and I saw
this Blessed State of Good Men in another World so hath he likewise assur'd us that greater Degrees of this Happiness shall be the Portion of Those who suffer for Him and his Truth Mat. 5. 10 11 12. Blessed are they which are persecuted for Righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and speak all manner of evil against you falsly for my Names sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your Reward in Heaven And nothing surely can be more Reasonable than to part with things of Small Value for things infinitely Greater and more Considerable to forego the Transient Pleasures and Enjoyments and the Imperfect Felicities of this World for the Solid and Perfect and Perpetual Happiness of a Better Life and to exchange a Short and Miserable Life for Eternal Life and Blessedness in a word to be content to be driven Home to be banisht out of this World into our own Native Country and to be violently thrust out of this Vale of Tears into those Regions of Bliss where are Joys unspeakable and full of Glory This Consideration St. Paul tells us supported the Primitive Christians under their sharpest and heaviest Sufferings 2 Cor. 4. 16. For this cause says he we faint not because our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory whilst we look not at the things which are seen but the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal So that our Sufferings bear no more Proportion to the Reward of them than Finite does to Infinite than Temporal to Eternal between which there is no Proportion All that now remains is to draw some useful Inferences from what hath been Discoursed concerning this great and difficult Duty of Self-denial for the sake of Christ and his Religion and they shall be these following 1. To acknowledg the great Goodness of God to us that all these Laws and Commands even the Hardest and Severest of them are so reasonable God as he is our Maker and gave us our Beings hath an Entire and Soveraign Right over us and by virtue of that Right might have imposed very Hard things upon us and this without the giving Account to us of any of his matters and without propounding any Reward to us so vastly disproportionable to our Obedience to him But in giving Laws to us he hath not made use of this Right The most Severe and Rigorous Commands of the Gospel are such that we shall be infinitely Gainers by our Obedience to them If we deny our selves any thing in this World for Christ and his Religion we shall in the next be considered for it to the Utmost not only far beyond what it can Deserve but beyond what we can Conceive or Imagine For this perishing Life and the transitory Trifles and Enjoyments of it we shall receive a Kingdom which cannot be shaken an uncorruptible Crown which fadeth not away Eternal in the Heavens For these are Faithful Sayings and we shall Infallibly find them true That if we suffer with Christ we shall also reign with him if we be persecuted for righteousness sake great shall be our reward in Heaven if we part with our Temporal Life we shall be made Partakers of Eternal Life He that is firmly persuaded of the Happiness of the next World and believes the Glory which shall then be revealed hath no Reason to be so much offended at the Sufferings of this Present time so long as he knows and believes that these Light afflictions which are but for a Moment will work for him a for more Exceeding and Eternal Weight of Glory 2. Seeing this is required of every Christian to be always in a Preparation and Disposition of Mind to deny our selves and to take up our Cross if we do in good earnest resolve to be Christians we ought to fit down and consider well with our selves what our Religion will cost us and whether we be content to come up to the Price of it If we value any thing in this World above Christ and his Truth we are not worthy of him If it come to this that we must either renounce Him and his Religion or quit our temporal Interests if we be not ready to forego these nay and to part even with Life it self rather than to forsake Him and his Truth we are not worthy of him These are the Terms of our Christianity and therefore we are required in Baptism solemnly to renounce the World And our Saviour from this very Consideration infers That all who take upon them the Profession of his Religion should consider seriously beforehand and count the cost of it Luke 14. 28. Which of you says he intending to build a Tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it Or what King going to war with another King doth not sit down and consult whether with 10000 he be able to meet him that cometh against him with 20000. So likewise whosoever he be that forsaketh not all he hath cannot be my Disciple You see the Terms upon which we are Christians we must always be prepared in the Resolution of our Minds to deny our selves and take up our Cross tho we are not Actually put upon this Tryal 3. What hath been said is matter of great Comfort and Encouragement to all those who deny themselves and suffer upon so good an Account of whom God knows there are too great a Number at this Day in several parts of the World Some under actual Sufferings such as cannot but move Compassion and Horror in all that hear of them Others who are fled hither and into other Countries for Refuge and Shelter from one of the sharpest Persecutions that perhaps ever was if all the Circumstances of it be duly considered But not to enlarge upon so unpleasant a Theam they who suffer for the Truth and Righteousness sake have all the Comfort and Encouragement that the best Example and the greatest and most glorious Promises of God can give They have the best Example in their view Jesus the Author and Finisher of their Faith who endured the Cross and despised the Shame So that how great and terrible soever their Sufferings be they do but tread in the Steps of the Son of God and of the best and holiest Man that ever was and He who is their great Example in Suffering will likewise be their Support and their exceeding great Reward So that tho Suffering for Christ be accounted great Self-denyal and he is graciously pleased so to accept it because in denying things Present and Sensible for things Future and Invisible we do not only declare our Affection to him but our great Faith and Confidence in him by shewing that we rely upon his Word and venture all upon the Security which he offers us in