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SERM. cumftances of the future ftate to us; as that all men CLXXVII. at the end of the world fhall be fummoned to make

a folemn appearance before the LORD JESUS CHRIST, whom God hath made judge of the world, as a reward of his patience and fufferings; that the bodies of men fhall, in order to that appearance, be raised up by the mighty power of Gon, and united to their fouls, that as they have been inftruments of the foul in acts of holiness and fin, fo they may take part likewife in the happiness and torments of it. There are feveral other circumftances the gospel hath revealed to us concerning our future ftate, which had they not been revealed, we could never have known, hardly have conjectured; in all which, besides the affurance that they are revealed, it is a great fatisfaction to us, that there is nothing in them that is unworthy of GOD, or that favours of the weakness and vanity of human imagination.

3. The gofpel gives us yet farther affurance of thefe things, by fuch an argument as is like to be the moft convincing and fatisfactory to common capacities; and that is by a lively inftance of the thing to be proved, in "raifing CHRIST from the dead," Acts xvii. 30, 31.

It is true indeed, under the old teftament there were two inftances fomewhat of this nature; Enoch and Elias were immediately translated, and taken up alive into heaven; but these two inftances do in many refpects fall fhort of the other. For after CHRIST was raised from the dead, he converfed forty days with his difciples, and fatisfied them that he was rifen; after which he was in their fight vifibly taken up into heaven and as an evidence that he was poffeffed of his glorious kingdom, he fent down, according to his promife, his holy Spirit in miraculous

gifts, to affure them by thofe teftimonies of his royalty, that he was in heaven, and to qualify them by those miraculous powers to convince the world of the truth of their doctrine.

Now what argument more proper to convince them of another life after this, than to fee a man raised from the dead, and reftored to a new life? What fitter to fatisfy a man concerning heaven, and the happy estate of those there, than to fee one vifibly taken up into heaven? And what more fit to affure us, that the promises of the gospel are real, and shall be made good to us, than to fee him who made these promises to us, raife himself from the dead, and go up into heaven, and from thence to difpenfe miraculous gifts and powers abroad in the world, as evidences of the power and authority which he was invefted withal? All the philofophical arguments that a man can bring for the foul's immortality, and another life, will have no force upon vulgar apprehenfions, in comparison of these fenfible demonftrations, which give an experiment of the thing, and furnish us with an inftance of fomething of the fame kind, and of equal difficulty with that which is propounded to our belief.

4. And lastly, the effects which the clear discovery of this truth had upon the world, are fuch, as the world never faw before, and are a farther inducement to perfuade us of the truth and the reality of it. After the gofpel was entertained in the world, to fhew, that those who embraced it did fully believe this principle, and were abundantly fatisfied concerning the rewards and happinefs of another life, they did for the fake of their religion defpife this life and all the enjoyments of it, from a thorough perfuafion of a far greater happiness than any this world could af

SERM.

CLXXVII.

ford,

SERM. ford, remaining in the next life. With what chearCLXXVII. fulness did they fuffer perfecutions, with what joy

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and triumph did they welcome torments, and embrace death, "knowing in themselves that they had " in heaven a better and more enduring fubftance!" Thus when life and immortality was brought to light by the gofpel," death was as it were quite abolished; thofe of the weakest age and fex, women and children, did familiarly encounter it with as great a bravery, and bore up against the terrors of it with as much courage, as any of the greatest fpirits among the Romans ever did: and this not in a few inftances, but in vaft numbers. No emperor in the world ever had fo nnmerous an army of perfons refolved to fight for him, as this "captain of "our falvation, this prince of life and glory" had of perfons couragiously refolved, and chearfully contented to die for him.

Now this wonderful effect, the like of which the world never faw before, was very fuitable to the nature of this doctrine. Suppofe that GOD from heaven fhould have given men affurance of another life after this, in which good men fhould be unfpeakably happy what more reasonable to imagine, thạn that perions fo affured fhould defpife this life, and all the enjoyments of it, in comparison of the eternal and unconceivable happiness, which they were perfuaded they fhould be made partakers of in another world? So that whatever affurance an exprefs and clear revelation from GoD of the foul's immortality and another life, together with the particular circumftances of that ftate; whatever affurance a lively inftance and example of the thing, in the perfon of him who brings this doctrine to the world; whatever confequent miracles, and fuitable effects upon

the

the minds of men to such a principle: I fay, what- SERM. ever affurance and fatisfaction these can give of this CLXXVII. principle, all this the gospel hath given us, beyond whatever the heathens or Jews had before.

The inference I fhall make from this difcourfe fhall be only this; that if there be such a state after this life, then how does it concern every man to provide for it? Every action that we do in this life will have a good or bad influence upon our everlasting condition, and the confequences of it will extend themselves to eternity. Did men seriously confider this, that they carry about them immortal fouls that shall live for ever, they would not trifle away the opportunities of this life, bend all their thoughts, and imploy their designs in the present gratification of their fenfes, and the fatisfaction of their fleshly part, which shall shortly die and moulder into duft: but they would make provision for the state which is beyond the grave, and lay defigns for eternity, which is infinitely the most confiderable duration; they would not, like children, take care for the prefent, without any prospect to the future, and lay out all they have to please themselves for a day, without any regard to the remaining part of their lives. Nothing can be more unbecoming Chriftians, whose whole religion pretends to be built upon the firm belief of another world, than to be intent upon the things of this prefent life, to the neglect of their fouls and all eternity.

Seeing then we pretend to be affured of immortal life, and to have clear discoveries of everlasting hap piness and glory, as we hope to be made partakers. of this portion, let us live as it becomes the candi. dates of heaven, those that are heirs of another world, and "the children of the refurrection, that this B b VOL. IX. 66 grace

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grace of God, which hath brought falvation, may "teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lufts, "and to live foberly, righteously, and godly in this prefent life, looking for that bleffed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our "SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST."

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SERMON CLXXVIII. Of the certainty of a future judgment.

SERM.

CLXXVIII.

The first

fermon on

this text.

2 CO R. v. 10.

For we must all appear before the judgment-feat of CHRIST, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

TH

HE apoftle, in the beginning of this chapter, expreffeth his earnest defire, if GOD faw it fit, to quit "this earthly tabernacle, for a houfe not "made with hands, eternal in the heavens, to be "abfent from the body, and prefent with the LORD." But however GOD fhould difpofe of him, he tells us that he made it his conftant endeavour, fo to behave himself, that both in this prefent ftate, whilft he continued in the body, and when he should quit it, and appear before God, he might be approved and accepted of him. And that which made him so careful was, because there was a day certainly coming, wherein every man muft give an account of himself to the great judge of the world, and receive the just recompence of his actions done in this life, "Wherefore we labour, that whether " prefent

v. 9, 10.

5

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