to the good order and more easie government of humane Society because they have a good influence both upon Magistrates and Subjects 1. Upon Magistrates Religion teacheth them to rule over men in the fear of God because though they be Gods on earth yet they are subjects of Heaven and accountable to Him who is higher than the highest in this world Religion in a Magistrate strengthens his authority because it procures veneration and gains a reputation to it And in all the affairs of this world so much reputation is really so much power We see that piety and Vertue where they are found among men of lower degree will command some reverence and respect But in persons of eminent place and dignity they are seated to a great advantage so as to cast a lustre upon their very Place and by a strong reflexion to double the beams of Majesty Whereas impiety and vice do strangely lessen greatness and do secretly and unavoidably derive some weakness upon authority it self Of this the Scripture gives us a remarkable instance in David For among other things which made the Sons of Zurviah too hard for him this probably was none of the least that they were particularly conscious to his crimes 2. Religion hath a good influence upon the People to make them obedient to Government and peaceable one towards another 1. To make them obedient to Government and conformable to Laws and that not onely for wrath and out of fear of the Magistrates power which is but a weak and loofe principle of obedience and will cease when ever men can rebel with safety and to advantage but out of Conscience which is a firm and constant and lasting principle and will hold a man fast when all other obligations will break He that hath entertain'd the true principles of Christianity is not to be tempted from his obedience and subjection by any worldly considerations because he believes that whatsoever resisteth authority resisteth the ordinance of God and that they who resist shall receive to themselves damnation 2. Religion tends to make men peaceable one towards another For it endeavours to plant all those qualities and dispositions in men which tend to peace and unity and to fill men with a spirit of universal love and good will It endeavours likewise to secure every man's interest by commanding the observation of that great rule of equity Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them by enjoyning that truth and fidelity be inviolably observed in all our words promises and contracts And in order hereunto it requires the extirpation of all those passions and vices which render men unsociable and troublesome to one another as pride covetousness and injustice hatred and revenge and cruelty and those likewise which are not so commonly reputed vices as self-conceit and peremptoriness in a man 's own opinion and all peevishness and incompliance of humour in things lawful and indifferent And that these are the proper effects of true piety the doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles every where teacheth us Now if this be the design of Religion to bring us to this temper thus to heal the natures of men and to sweeten their spirits to correct their passions and to mortifie all those lusts which are the causes of enmity and division then it is evident that in its own nature it tends to the peace and happiness of humane society and that if men would but live as Religion requires they should do the world would be a quiet habitation a most lovely and desirable place in comparison of what now it is And indeed the true reason why the societies of men are so full of tumult and disorder so troublesome and tempestuous is because there is so little of true Religion among men so that were it not for some small remainders of piety and vertue which are yet left scatter'd among mankind humane society would in a short space disband and run into confusion the earth would grow wild and become a great forest and mankind would become beasts of prey one towards another And if this discourse hold true surely then one would think that vertue should find it self a seat where-ever humane societies are and that Religion should be owned and encouraged in the world until men cease to be governed by reason II. I come to vindicate this truth from the insinuations and pretences of atheistical persons I shall mention two 1. That Government may subsist well enough without the belief of a God and a state of rewards and punishments after this life 2. That as for vertue and vice they are arbitrary things 1. That Government may subsist well enough without the belief of a God or a state of rewards and punishments after this life And this the Atheist does and must assert otherwise he is by his own confession a declared enemy to Government and unfit to live in humane society For answer to this I will not deny but that though the generality of men did not believe any superior Being nor any rewards and punishments after this life yet notwithstanding this there might be some kind of Government kept up in the world For supposing men to have reason the necessities of humane nature and the mischiefs of confusion would probably compel them into some kind of order But then I say withall that if these principles were banished out of the world Government would be far more difficult than now it is because it would want its firmest Basis and foundation there would be infinitely more disorders in the world if men were restrained from injustice and violence onely by humane laws and not by principles of conscience and the dread of another world Therefore Magistrates have always thought themselves concerned to cherish Religion and to maintain in the minds of men the belief of a God and another life Nay that common suggestion of atheistical persons that Religion was at first a politick device and is still kept up in the world as a State-engine to awe men into obedience is a clear acknowledgment of the usefulness of it to the ends of Government and does as fully contradict that pretence of theirs which I am now confuting as any thing that can be said 2. That vertue and vice are arbitrary things founded onely in the imaginations of men and in the constitutions and customs of the world but not in the nature of the things themselves and that that is vertue or vice good or evil which the Supream Authority of a Nation declares to be so And this is frequently and confidently asserted by the ingenious Author of a very bad Book I mean the Leviathan Now the proper way of answering any thing that is confidently asserted is to shew the contrary namely That there are some things that have a natural evil and deformity in them as perjury perfidiousness unrighteousness and ingratitude which are things not onely condemned by the positive laws and constitutions of
an argument that there is a true one than that there is none There would be no counterfeits but for the sake of something that is real For though all pretenders seem to be what they really are not yet they pretend to be something that really is For to counterfeit is to put on the likeness and appearance of some real excellency There would be no Brass-money if there were not good and lawful money Bristol-Stones would not pretend to be Diamonds if there never had been any Diamonds Those Idols in Henry the seventh's time as Sir Francis Bacon calls them Lambert Simnell and Perkin Warbeck had never been set up if there had not once been a real Plantagenet and Duke of York So the Idols of the Heathen though they be set up in affront to the true God yet they rather prove that there is one than the contrary III. Speculative Atheisme is absurd because it requires more evidence for things than they are capable of Aristotle hath long since well observed how unreasonable it is to expect the same kind of proof and evidence for every thing which we have for some things Mathematical things being of an abstracted nature are capable of the clearest and strictest Demonstration But Conclusions in Natural Philosophy are capable of proof by an Induction of experiments things of a moral nature by moral arguments and matters of fact by credible testimony And though none of these be capable of that strict kind of demonstration which Mathematical matters are yet have we an undoubted assurance of them when they are proved by the best arguments that things of that kind will bear No man can demonstrate to me unless we will call every argument that is fit to convince a wise man a demonstration that there is such an Island in America as Jamaica Yet upon the testimony of credible persons who have seen it and Authors who have written of it I am as free from all doubt concerning it as I am from doubting of the clearest Mathematical demonstration So that this is to be entertained as a firm Principle by all those who pretend to be certain of any thing at all That when any thing in any of these kinds is proved by as good Arguments as a thing of that kind is capable of and we have as great assurance that it is as we could possibly have supposing it were we ought not in reason to make any doubt of the existence of that thing Now to apply this to the present case The being of a God is not Mathematically demonstrable nor can it be expected it should because only Mathematical matters admit of this kind of evidence Nor can it be proved immediately by sense because God being supposed to be a pure spirit cannot be the object of any corporeal sense But yet we have as great assurance that there is a God as the nature of the thing to be proved is capable of and as we could in reason expect to have supposing that he were For let us suppose there were such a Being as an Infinite Spirit clothed with all possible perfection that is as good and wise and powerfull c. as can be imagined what conceivable ways are there whereby we should come to be assured that there is such a Being but either by an internal impression of the notion of a God upon our minds or else by such external and visible effects as our Reason tells us must be attributed to some cause and which we cannot without great violence to our understandings attribute to any other cause but such a Being as we conceive God to be that is one that is infinitely good and wise and powerfull Now we have this double assurance that there is a God and greater or other than this the thing is not capable of If God should assume a body and present himself before our eyes this might amaze us but could not give us any rational assurance that there is an Infinite Spirit If he should work a Miracle this could not in reason convince an Atheist more than the arguments he already hath for it If the Atheist then were to ask a sign in the heaven above or in the earth beneath what could he desire God to do for his conviction more than he hath already done Could he desire him to work a greater Miracle than to make a world Why if God should carry this perverse man out of the limits of this world and shew him a new heaven and a new earth springing out of nothing he might say that innumerable parts of matter chanc'd just then to rally together and to form themselves into this new world and that God did not make it Thus you see that we have all the rational assurance of a God that the thing is capable of and that atheism is absurd and unreasonable in requiring more IV. The Atheist is unreasonable because he pretends to know that which no man can know and to be certain of that which no body can be certain of that is that there is no God and which is consequent upon this as I shall shew afterwards that it is not possible there should be one And the Atheist must pretend to know this certainly For it were the greatest folly in the world for a man to deny and despise God if he be not certain that He is not Now whoever pretends to be certain that there is no God hath this great disadvantage he pretends to be certain of a pure Negative But of negatives we have far the least certainty and they are usually hardest and many times impossible to be proved Indeed such negatives as onely deny some particular mode or manner of a things existence a man may have a certainty of them because when we see things to be we may see what they are and in what manner they do or do not exist For instance we may be certain that man is not a creature that hath wings because this only concerns the manner of his existence and we seeing what he Is may certainly know that he is not so or so But pure negatives that is such as absolutely deny the existence of things or the possibility of their existence can never be proved For after all that can be said against a thing this will still be true that many things possibly are which we know not of and that many more things may be than are and if so after all our arguments against a thing it will be uncertain whether it be or not And this is universally true unless the thing denied to be do plainly imply a contradiction from which I have already shewn the notion of a God to be free Now the Atheist pretends to be certain of a pure negative that there is no such being as God and that it is not possible there should be But no man can reasonably pretend to know thus much but he must pretend to know all things that are or can be which if any man should
and use and that 's the best thing which serves the best end and purpose and the more necessary any thing is to such an end the better it is So that the best knowledge is that which is of greatest use and necessity to us in order to our great end which is eternal happiness and the salvation of our Souls Curious speculations and the contemplation of things that are impertinent to us and do not concern us nor serve to promote our happiness are but a more specious and ingenious sort of idleness a more pardonable and creditable kind of Ignorance That Man that doth not know those things which are of use and necessity for him to know is but an ignorant man whatever he may know besides Now the knowledge of God and of Christ and of our duty is of the greatest usefulness and necessity to us in order to our happiness It 's of absolute necessity that we should know God and Christ in order to our being happy This is life eternal that is Joh. 17.3 the onely way to it to know thee the onely true God and him whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ It is necessary also in order to our happiness to know our duty because 't is necessary for us to do it and it is impossible to do it except we know it So that whatsoever other knowledge a man may be endued withall he is but an ignorant person who doth not know God the Author of his being the preserver and protector of his life his Soveraign and his Judge the giver of every good and perfect gift his surest refuge in trouble his best friend or worst enemy the present support of his life his hopes in death his future happiness and his portion for ever who does not know his relation to God the duty that he owes him and the way to please him who can make him happy or miserable for ever who doth not know the Lord Jesus Christ who is the way the truth and the life If a man by a vast and imperious mind and a heart large as the sand upon the Sea-shore as it is said of Solomon could command all the knowledge of Nature and Art of words and things could attain to a mastery in all Languages and sound the depths of all Arts and Sciences measure the earth and the heavens and tell the stars and declare their order and motions could discourse of the interests of all States the intrigues of all Courts the reason of all Civil laws and constitutions and give an account of the History of all ages could speak of trees from the Cedar-tree that is in Lebanon even unto the Hysop that springs out of the wall and of beasts also and of fowls and of creeping things and of fishes and yet should in the mean time be destitute of the knowledge of God and Christ and his duty all this would be but an impertinent vanity and a more glittering kind of Ignorance and such a man like the Philosopher who whilst he was gazing upon the stars fell into the ditch would but sapienter descendere in infernum be undone with all this knowledge and with a great deal of wisdom go down to Hell 2. Secondly That to be religious is the truest wisdom and that likewise upon two accounts 1. Because it is to be wise for our selves 2. It is to be wise as to our main interest and concernment 1. 'T is to be wise for our selves There 's an expression Job 22.21 He that is wise is profitable to himself and Prov. 9.12 If thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thy self intimating that wisdom regards a man 's own interest and advantage and that he is not a wise man that doth not take care of himself and his own concernments according to that of Old Ennius nequicquam sapere sapientem qui sibi ipsi prodesse non quiret That man hath but an empty title of Wisdom and is not really vvise vvho is not wise for himself As self-preservation is the first principle of Nature so care of our selves and our ovvn interest is the first part of wisdom He that is wise in the affairs and concernments of other men but careless and negligent of his own that man may be said to be busie but he is not wise he is employed indeed but not so as a wise man should be Now this is the Wisdom of Religion that it directs a man to a care of his own proper interest and concernment 2. It is to be wise as to our main interest Our chief end and highest interest is happiness And this is happiness to be freed from all if it may however from the greatest evils and to enjoy if it may be all good however the chiefest To be happy is not onely to be freed from the pains and diseases of the body but from anxiety and vexation of spirit not onely to enjoy the pleasures of sense but peace of Conscience and tranquillity of mind To be happy is not onely to be so for a little while but as long as may be and if it be possible for ever Now Religion designs our greatest and longest happiness it aims at a freedom from the greatest evils and to bring us to the possession and enjoyment of the greatest good For Religion wisely considers that men have immortal spirits which as they are spirits are capable of a pleasure and happiness distinct from that of our bodies and our senses and because they are immortal are capable of an everlasting happiness Now our souls being the best part of our selves and eternity being infinitely the most considerable duration the greatest wisdom is to secure the interest of our souls and of eternity though it be with loss and to the prejudice of our temporal and inferior Interests Therefore Religion directs us rather to secure inward peace than outward ease to be more carefull to avoid everlasting and intolerable torment than short and light afflictions which are but for a moment to court the favour of God more than the friendship of the world and not so much to fear them that can kill the body and after that have no more that they can do as him who after he hath kill'd can destroy both body and soul in hell In a word our main interest is to be as happy as we can and as long as is possible and if we be cast into such circumstances that we must be either in part and for a time or else wholly and always miserable the best wisdom is to chuse the greatest and most lasting happiness but the least and shortest misery Upon this account Religion prefers those pleasures which flow from the presence of God for evermore infinitely before the transitory pleasures of this world and is much more carefull to avoid eternal misery than present sufferings This is the wisdom of Religion that upon consideration of the whole and casting up all things together it does advise and lead us to our best interest
they be so or not and patiently to consider the arguments which are brought for them For many have miscarried about these things not because there is not reason and evidence enough for them but because they have not had patience enough to consider them Secondly Consider these things impartially All wicked men are of a party against Religion Some lust or interest ingageth them against it Hence it comes to pass that they are apt to slight the strongest arguments that can be brought for it and to cry up very weak ones against it Men do generally and without difficulty assent to Mathematical truths because it is no bodies interest to deny them but men are slow to believe moral and divine Truths because by their lusts and interest they are prejudiced against them And therefore you may observe that the more vertuously any man lives and the less he is enslaved to any lust the more ready he is to entertain the principles of Religion Therefore when you are examining these matters do not take into consideration any sensual or worldly interest but deal clearly and impartially with your selves Let not temporal and little advantages sway you against a greater and more durable interest Think thus with your selves that you have not the making of things true or false but that the truth and existence of things is already fix'd and setled and that the principles of Religion are already either determinately true or false before you think of them either there is a God or there is not either your Souls are Immortal or they are not one of these is certain and necessary and is not now to be altered the truth of things will not comply with our conceits and bend it self to our interests Therefore do not think what you would have to be but consider impartially what is and if it be will be whether you will or no. Do not reason thus I would fain be wicked and therefore it is my interest that there should be no God nor no life after this and therefore I will endeavour to prove that there is no such thing and will shew all the favour I can to that side of the question I will bend my understanding and wit to strengthen the negative and will study to make it as true as I can This is fond because it is the way to cheat thy self and that we may do as often as we please but the nature of things will not be imposed upon If then thou be as wise as thou oughtest to be thou wilt reason thus with thy self my highest interest is not to be deceived about these matters therefore setting aside all other considerations I will endeavour to know the truth and yield to that And now it is time to draw towards a conclusion of this long discourse And that which I have all this while been endeavouring to convince men of and to perswade them to is no other but what God himself doth particularly recommend to us as proper for humane consideration unto Man he said behold the fear of the Lord that is wisedom and to depart from evil is understanding Whoever pretends to reason and calls himself a man is oblig'd to acknowledge God and to demean himself religiously towards him For God is to the understanding of man as the light of the Sun is to our eyes the first and the plainest and the most glorious object of it He fills Heaven and earth and every thing in them does represent him to us Which way soever we turn our selves we are encountred with clear evidences and sensible demonstrations of a Deity For as the Apostle reasons The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen Rom. 1. being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and godhead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that they are without excuse that is those men that know not God have no apology to make for themselves Or if men do know and believe that there is such a being as God not to consider the proper consequences of such a Principle not to demean our selves towards him as becomes our relation to him and dependance upon him and the duty which we naturally owe him this is great stupidity and inconsiderateness And yet he that considers the lives and actions of the greatest part of men would verily think that they understood nothing of all this Therefore the Scripture represents wicked men as without understanding It is a Nation void of counsel Deut. 32.28 Psal 14.4 neither is there any understanding in them and elsewhere have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge Not that they are destitute of the natural faculty of understanding but they do not use it as they ought they are not blind but they wink they detain the truth of God in unrighteousness and though they know God yet they do not glorifie him as God nor suffer the apprehensions of him to have a due influence upon their hearts and lives Men generally stand very much upon the credit and reputation of their understandings and of all things in the world hate to be accounted fools because it is so great a reproach The best way to avoid this imputation and to bring off the credit of our understandings is to be truly religious to fear the Lord and to depart from evil For certainly there is no such imprudent person as he that neglects God and his soul and is careless and slothful about his everlasting concernments because this man acts contrary to his truest reason and best interest he neglects his own safety and is active to procure his own ruine he flies from happiness and runs away from it as fast as he can but pursues misery and makes haste to be undone Hence it is that Solomon does all along in the Proverbs give the title of fool to a wicked man as if it were his proper name and the fittest character of him because he is so eminently such There is no fool to the sinner who every moment ventures his Soul and lays his everlasting interest at the stake Every time a man provokes God he does the greatest mischief to himself that can be imagined A mad man that cuts himself and tears his own flesh and dashes his head against the stones does not act so unreasonably as he because he is not so sensible of what he does Wickedness is a kind of voluntary frenzy and a chosen distraction and every sinner does wilder and more extravagant things than any man can do that is craz'd and out of his wits onely with this sad difference that he knows better what he does For to them who believe another life after this an eternal state of happiness or misery in another world which is but a reasonable postulatum or demand among Christians there is nothing in Mathematicks more demonstrable than the folly of wicked men for it is not a clearer and more evident principle that the whole is greater than a
of the greatest part of Christians How grosly and openly do many of us contradict the plain precepts of the Gospel by our ungodliness and worldly lusts by living intemperately or unjustly or prophanely in this present world As if the grace of God which brings salvation had never appear'd to us as if we had never hear'd of Heaven or Hell or believ'd not one word that the Scripture says concerning them as if we were in no expectation of the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ whom God hath appointed to judge the world in righteousness and who will bestow mighty rewards upon those who faithfully serve him but will come in flaming sire to take vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Let us not then deceive our selves by pretending to this excellent knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord if we do not frame our lives according to it For though we know these things never so well yet we are not happy unless we do them Nay we are but the more miserable for knowing them if we do them not Therefore it concerns every one of us to consider seriously what we believe and whether our belief of the Christian Religion have its due effect upon our lives If not all the Precepts and Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel will rise up in judgment against us and the Articles of our Faith will be so many Articles of Accusation and the great weight of our charge will be this that we did not obey that Gospel which we profess'd to believe that we made confession of the Christian Faith but liv'd like Heathens Not to believe the Christian Religion after so great evidence and confirmation as God hath given to it is very unreasonable but to believe it to be true and yet to live as if it were false is the greatest repugnancy and contradiction that can be He that does not believe Christianity either hath or thinks he hath some reason for with-holding his assent from it But he that believes it and yet lives contrary to it knows that he hath no reason for what he does and is convinc'd that he ought to do otherwise And he is a miserable man indeed that does those things for the doing of which he continually stands condemn'd by his own mind and accordingly God will deal more severely with such persons He will pardon a thousand defects in our understandings if they do not proceed from gross carelesness and neglect of our selves but the faults of our wills have no excuse because we knew to do better and were convinc'd in our minds that we ought not to have done so Dost thou believe that the wrath of God is reveal'd from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and dost thou still allow thy self in ungodliness and worldly lusts Art thou convinc'd that without holiness no man shall see the Lord and dost thou still persist in a wicked course Art thou fully perswaded that no whoremonger nor adulterer nor covetous nor unrighteous person shall have any inheritance in the Kingdom of God and Christ and dost thou for all that continue to practise these vices What canst thou say man why it should not be to thee according to thy faith If it so fall out that thou art miserable and undone for ever thou hast no reason to be surpriz'd as if some unexpected thing had happen'd to thee It is but with thee just as thou believ'dst it would be when thou didst these things For how couldst thou expect that God should accept of thy good belief when thou didst so notoriously contradict it by a bad life How couldst thou look for other but that God should condemn thee for the doing of those things for which thine own Conscience did condemn thee all the while thou wast doing of them When we come into the other world there is no consideration that will sting our consciences more cruelly than this that we did wickedly when we knew to have done better and chose to make our selves miserable when we understood the way to have been happy To conclude we Christians have certainly the best and the holiest the wisest and most reasonable Religion in the world but then we are in the worst condition of all mankind if the best Religion in the world do not make us good 1 JOHN 5.3 And his commandments are not grievous ONE of the great prejudices which men have entertain'd against the Christian Religion is this that it lays upon men heavy burdens and grievous to be born that the Laws of it are very strict and severe difficult to be kept and yet dangerous to be broken That it requires us to govern and keep under our passions and to contradict many times our strongest inclinations and desires to cut off our right hand and to pluck out our right eye to love cur enemies to bless them that curse us to do good to them that hate us and to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us to forgive the greatest injuries that are done to us and to make reparation for the least that we do to others to be contented with our condition patient under sufferings and ready to sacrifice our dearest interests in this world and even our very lives in the cause of God and Religion All these seem to be hard sayings and grievous commandments For the removal of this prejudice I have chosen these words of the Apostle which expresly tells us the contrary that the commandments of God are not grievous And though this be a great truth if it be impartially consider'd yet it is also a great paradox to men of corrupt minds and vicious practices who are prejudic'd against Religion and the holy Laws of God by their interest and their lusts This seems a strange proposition to those who look upon Religion at a distance and never try'd the experiment of a holy life who measure the Laws of God not by the intrinsecal goodness and equity of them but by the reluctancy and opposition which they find in their own hearts against them Upon this account it will be requisite to take some pains to satisfie the reason of men concerning this truth and if it be possible to make it so evident that those who are unwilling to own it may yet be asham'd to deny it And methinks I have this peculiar advantage in the argument I have now undertaken that every reasonable man cannot chuse but wish me success in this attempt because I undertake the proof of that which it is every man's interest that it should be true And if I can make it out this pretence against Religion will not onely be baffled but we shall gain a new and forcible argument to perswade men over to it Now the easiness or difficulty of the observation of any Laws or commands depends chiefly upon these three things First Upon the Nature of
fugitive are they that after all our endeavours to secure them they may break loose from us and in an instant vanish out of our sight riches make to themselves wings and flie like an Eagle intimating to us that riches are often accessary to their own ruin Many times the greatness of a man's estate and nothing else hath been the cause of the loss of it and of taking away the life of the owner thereof The fairness of some mens fortune hath been a temptation to those who have been more powerfull to ravish it from them thus riches make to themselves wings So that he that enjoys the greatest happiness of this world does still want one happiness more to secure to him for the future what he possesses for the persent But the happiness of Heaven is a steady and constant light fixt and unchangeable as the fountain from whence it springs the father of lights with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning And if the enjoyments of this life were certain yet they are unsatisfying This is the vanity of vanities that every thing in this world can trouble us but nothing can give us satisfaction I know not how it is but either we or the things of this world or both are so phantastical that we can neither be well with these things nor well without them If we be hungry we are in pain and if we eat to the full we are uneasie If we be poor we think our selves miserable and when we come to be rich we commonly really are so If we are in a low condition we fret and murmur and if we chance to get up and to be rais'd to greatness we are many times farther from contentment than we were before So that we pursue the happiness of this world just as little children chase birds when we think we are come very near it and have it almost in our hands it flies farther from us than it was at first Nay so far are the enjoyments of this world from affording us satisfaction that the sweetest of them are most apt to satiate and cloy us All the pleasures of this world are so contriv'd as to yeild us very little happiness If they go off quickly they signifie nothing and if they stay long we are sick of them After a full draught of any sensual pleasure we presently loath it and hate it as much after the enjoyment as we courted it and long'd for it in the expectation But the delights of the other world as they will give us full satisfaction so we shall never be weary of them Every repetition of them will be accompanied with a new pleasure and contentment In the felicities of Heaven these two things shall be reconcil'd which never met together in any sensual delight long and full enjoyment and yet a fresh and perpetual pleasure As in God's presence there is fulness of joy so at his right hand there shall be pleasures for evermore 2. The happiness of the other life is not onely incomparably beyond any happiness of this world that it may be is no great commendation of it but it is very great in it self The happiness of Heaven is usually in Scripture descirb'd to us by such pleasures as are manly and excellent chast and intellectual infinitely more pure and refin'd than those of sense and if the Scripture at any time descend to the metaphors of a feast and a banquet and a marriage it is plainly by way of accommodation to our weakness and condescention to our capacities But the chief ingredients of this happiness so far as the Scripture hath thought fit to reveal it to us are the perfection of our knowledge and the height of our love and the perpetual society and friendship of all the blessed inhabitants of those glorious mansions and the joyfull concurrence of all these in chearfull expressions of gratitude in the incessant praises and admiration of the fountain and author of all this happiness And what can be more delightfull than to have our understandings entertain'd with a clear sight of the best and most perfect Being with the knowledge of all his works and of the wise designs of his providence here in the world than to live in the reviving presence of God and to be continually attending upon him whose favour is life and whose glory is much more above that of any of the Princes of this world than the greatest of them is above the poorest worm The Queen of Sheba thought Solomon's Servants happy in having the opportunity by standing continually before him to hear his wisdom but in the other world it shall be a happiness to Solomon himself and to the wisest and greatest persons that ever were in this world to stand before this great King to admire his wisdom and to behold his glory Not that I imagine the happiness of Heaven to consist in a perpetual gazing upon God and in an idle contemplation of the glories of that place For as by that blessed sight we shall be infinitely transported so the Scripture tells us we shall be also transform'd into the image of the divine perfections we shall see God and we shall be like him and what greater happiness can there be than to be like the happiest and most perfect Being in the world Besides who can tell what employment God may have for us in the next life We need not doubt but that he who is happiness it self and hath promis'd to make us happy can easily find out such employments and delights for us in the other world as will be proper and suitable to that state But then besides the improvement of our knowledge there shall be the most delightfull exercise of love When we come to heaven we shall enter into the society of the blessed Angels and of the spirits of just men made perfect that is freed from all those passions and infirmities which do now render the conversation even of the best men sometimes troublesome to one another We shall then meet with all those excellent Persons those brave Minds those innocent and charitable Souls whom we have seen and heard and read of in this world There we shall meet with many of our dear relations and intimate friends and perhaps with many of our enemies to whom we shall then be perfectly reconcil'd notwithstanding all the warm contests and peevish differences which we had with them in this world even about matters of Religion For Heaven is a state of perfect love and friendship there will be nothing but kindness and good nature there and all the prudent Arts of endearment and wise ways of rendring conversation mutually pleasant to one another And what greater happiness can be imagin'd than to converse freely with so many excellent persons without any thing of folly or disguise of jealousie or design upon one another For then there will be none of those vices and passions of covetousness and ambition of envy and hatred of wrath and peevishness which
do now so much spoil the pleasure and disturb the quiet of mankind All quarrels and contentions schisms and divisions will then be effectually hinder'd not by force but by love not by compulsion but by that charity which never fails and all those controversies in Religion which are now so hotly agitated will then be finally determin'd not as we endeavour to end them now by Canons and Decrees but by a perfect knowledge and convincing light And when this blessed society is met together and thus united by love they shall all joyn in gratitude to their great Patrons and Benefactors to him that sits upon the Throne and to the lamb that was slain to God even our Father and to our Lord Jesus Christ who hath lov'd us and wash'd us from our sins in his own blood And they shall sing everlasting songs of praise to God for all his works of wonder for the effects of that infinite goodness and admirable wisdom and almighty power which are clearly seen in the creation and government of the world and of all the Creatures in it particularly for his favours to mankind for the benefit of their beings for the comfort of their lives and for all his mercifull providences towards them in this world But above all for the redemption of their souls by the death of his Son for the free forgiveness of their sins for the gracious assistance of his holy Spirit and for conducting them safely through all the snares and dangers the troubles and temptations of this world to the secure possession of that glory and happiness which then they shall be partakers of and are bound to praise God for to all eternity This this shall be the employment of the blessed spirits above and these are the chief ingredients of our happiness which the Scripture mentions And if there were no other as there may be ten thousand more for any thing I can tell yet generous and vertuous minds will easily understand how great a pleasure there is in the improvement of our knowledge and the exercise of love and in a gratefull and perpetual acknowledgement of the greatest benefits that creatures are capable of receiving 3. This happiness shall be eternal And though this be but a circumstance and do not enter into the nature of our happiness yet it is so material a one that all the felicities which heaven affords would be imperfect without it It would strangely damp and allay all our joys to think that they should sometime have an end And the greater our happiness were the greater trouble it would be to us to consider that it must have a period It would make a man sorrowfull indeed to think of leaving such vast possessions Indeed if the happiness of heaven were such as the joys of this world are it were fit they should be as short for after a little enjoyment it would cloy us and we should soon grow weary of it But being so excellent it would scarce be a happiness if it were not eternal It would imbitter the pleasures of heaven as great as they are to see to an end of them though it were at never so great a distance to consider that all this vast treasure of happiness would one day be exhausted and that after so many years were past we should be as poor and miserable again as we were once in this world God hath so order'd things that the vain and empty delights of this world should be temporary and transient but that the great and substantial pleasures of the other world should be as lasting as they are excellent For Heaven as it is an exceeding so it is an eternal weight of glory And this is that which crowns the joys of heaven and banishes all fear and trouble from the minds of the blessed And thus to be secur'd in the possession of our happiness is an unspeakable addition to it For that which is eternal as it shall never determine so it can never be diminish'd for to be diminish'd and to decay is to draw nearer to an end but that which shall never have an end can never come nearer to it O vast eternity how dost thou swallow up our thoughts and entertain us at once with delight and amazement This is the very top and highest pitch of our happiness upon which we may stand secure and look down with scorn upon all things here below and how small and inconsiderable do they appear to us compar'd with the vast and endless enjoyments of our future state But oh vain and foolish souls that are so little concern'd for eternity that for the trifles of time and the pleasures of sin which are but for a season can find in our hearts to forfeit an everlasting felicity Blessed God! why hast thou prepar'd such a happiness for those who neither consider it nor seek after it Why is such a price put into the hands of fools who have no heart to make use of it who fondly chuse to gratifie their lusts rather than to save their souls and sottishly prefer the temporary enjoyments of sin before a blessed immortality 4. And lastly This happiness is far above any thing that we can now conceive or imagine It is so great that it cannot now enter into the heart of man We cannot from the experience of any of those pleasures and delights which we have been acquainted withall in this world frame an equal Idea and conception of it So that when we come to Heaven we shall be ready to say of it as the Queen of Sheba did of Solomon's wisedom and prosperity that half of it hath not been told us that the felicities and glories of that state do far exceed all the fame which we heard of them in this world For who can say how great a good God is and how happy he who is the fountain of happiness can make those souls that love him and those whom he loves In this imperfect state we are not capable of a full representation of those glories We cannot now see God and live A full description of Heaven and of the pleasures of that state would let in joys upon us too big for our narrow capacities and too strong for weak mortality to bear We are now but Children and we speak as Children and understand and think as Children concerning these things but in the other state we shall grow up to be men and then we shall put away these childish thoughts now we know but in part but when that which is perfect is come 1 Cor. 13.9 10 11. that which is imperfect shall be done away now we see through a glass darkly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a riddle but then we shall see face to face now we know in part but then we shall know even as also we are known as the Apostle discourseth excellently concerning this very matter No sooner shall we enter upon the joys of the other world but our minds shall be rais'd to a strength
brought upon the publick stage and expos'd to the view of men and Angels There is nothing now hidden which shall not then be reveal'd nor secret which shall not be made known 5. To arm us against the fears of death Death is terrible to nature and the terrour of it is infinitely encreas'd by the fearfull apprehensions of what may follow it But the comfortable hopes of a blessed immortality do strangely relieve the fainting spirits of dying men and are able to reconcile us to death and in a great measure to take away the terrour of it I know that the thoughts of death are dismal even to good men and we have never more need of comfort and encouragement than when we are conflicting with this last Enemy and there is no such comfortable consideration to a dying man as the hopes of a happy eternity He that looks upon death onely as a passage to glory may welcome the messengers of it as bringing him the best and most joyfull news that ever came to him in his whole life and no man can stay behind in this world with half the comfort that this man leaves it And now I have done with the two things implyed in this phrase of having our conversation in heaven viz. the serious thoughts and considerations of heaven and the effect of these thoughts and considerations upon our hearts and lives I crave your patience but a little longer till I make some reflection upon what hath been deliver'd concerning the happiness of good men after this life I have told you that it is incomparably beyond any happiness of this world that it is great in it self and eternal in its duration and far above any thing that we can now conceive or imagine And now after all this I am very sensible how much all that I have said comes short of the greatness and dignity of the thing So that I could almost begin again and make a new attempt upon this subject And indeed who would not be loth to be taken off from so delightfull an argument Methinks 't is good for us to be here and to let our minds dwell upon these considerations We are unworthy of heaven and unfit to partake of so great a glory if we cannot take pleasure in the contemplation of those things now the possession whereof shall be our happiness for ever With what joy then should we think of those great and glorious things which God hath prepar'd for them that love him of that inheritance incorruptible undefil'd which fadeth not away reserv'd for us in the heavens How should we welcome the thoughts of that happy hour when we shall make our escape out of these prisons when we shall pass out of this howling wilderness into the promis'd Land when we shall be remov'd from all the troubles and temptations of a wicked and ill-natured world when we shall be past all storms and secur'd from all further danger of shipwreck and shall be safely landed in the regions of bliss and immortality O blessed time When all tears shall be wip'd from our eyes and death and sorrow shall be no more When mortality shall be swallow'd up of life and we shall enter upon the possession of all that happiness and glory which God hath promis'd and our faith hath believ'd and our hopes have rais'd us to the expectation of when we shall be eas'd of all our pains and resolv'd of all our doubts and be purg'd from all our sins and be free'd from all our fears and be happy beyond all our hopes and have all the happiness secur'd to us beyond the power of time and change When we shall know God and other things without study and love him and one another without measure and serve and praise him without weariness and obey his will without the least reluctancy and shall still be more and more delighted in the knowing and loving and praising and obeying of God to all eternity How should these thoughts affect our hearts and what a mighty influence ought they to have upon our lives The great disadvantage of the arguments fetch'd from another world is this that those things are at a great distance from us and not sensible to us and therefore are not apt to affect us so strongly and to work so powerfully upon us Now to make amends for this disadvantage we should often revive these considerations upon our mind and inculcate upon our selves the reality and certainty of these things together with the infinite weight and importance of them We should reason thus with our selves If good men shall be so unspeakably happy and consequently wicked men so extreamly miserable in another world If these things be true and will one day be found to be so why should they not be to me as if they were already present why should not I be as much afraid to commit any sin as if hell were naked before me and I saw the astonishing miseries of the damned and why should I not be as carefull to serve God and keep his commandments as if heaven were open to my view and I saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God with crowns of glory in his hand ready to be set upon the heads of all those who continue faithfull to him The lively apprehensions of the nearness of death and eternity are apt to make mens thoughts more quick and piercing and according as we think our selves prepar'd for our future state to transport us with joy or to amaze us with horrour For the soul that is fully satisfi'd of his future bliss is already entred into heaven has begun to take possession of glory and has as it were his blessed Saviour in his arms and may say with old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation But the thoughts of death must needs be very terrible to that man who is doubtfull or despairing of his future condition It would daunt the stoutest man that ever breathed to look upon death when he can see nothing but hell beyond it When the Apparition at Endor told Saul to morrow thou and thy Sons shall be with me these words struck him to the heart so that he fell down to the ground and there was no more strength left in him It is as certain that we shall die as if an express messenger should come to every one of us from the other world and tell us so Why should we not then always live as those that must die and as those that hope to be happy after death To have these apprehensions vigorous and lively upon our minds this is to have our conversation in heaven from whence also we look for a Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working of that mighty power whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself FINIS