and Sense to govern our bodily Appetites and Passions to grow indifferent to the Pleasures of Sense to use them for the refreshment and necessities of Nature but not to be over-curious about them not to be fond of enjoying them nor troubled for the want of them never to indulge ourselves in unlawful Pleasures and to be very temperate in our use of lawful ones to be sure we must take care that the Spiritual part that the sense of God and of Religion be always predominant in us and this will be a principle of Life in us a principle of divine Sensations and Joys when this Body shall tumble into Dust. VI. If Death be our putting off these Bodies then the Resurrection from the Dead is the Re-union of Soul and Body the Soul does not die and therefore cannot be said to rise again from the Dead but it is the Body which like Seed falls into the Earth and springs up again more beautiful and glorious at the Resurrection of the Just. To believe the Resurrection of the Body or of the Flesh and to believe another Life after this are two very different things the Heathens believed a future State but never dreamt of the Resurrection of the Body which is the peculiar Article of the Christian Faith. And yet it is the Resurrection of our Bodies which is our Victory and Triumph over Death for Death was the Punishment of Adam's sin and those who are in a separate state still suffer the Curse of the Law Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Christ came to deliver us from this Curse by being made a Curse for us that is to deliver us from Death by dying for us But no man can be said to be delivered from Death till his body rise again for part of him is under the power of Death still while his body rots in the Grave nay he is properly in a state of Death while he is in a state of Separation of Soul and Body which is the true notion of Death And therefore St. Paul calls the Resurrection of the Body the destroying Death 1 Cor. 15. 25 26. He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet the last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death That is by the Resurrection of the Dead as appears from the whole scope of the place and is particularly expressed 54 55 c. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass that saying which is written Death is swallowed up in victory O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but blessed be God who hath given us the victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. This is the perfection and consummation of our reward when our Bodies shall be raised incorruptible and glorious when Christ shall change our vile Bodies and make them like to his own most glorious Body I doubt not but good men are in a very happy state before the Resurrection but yet their happiness is not complete for the very state of Separation is an imperfect state because a separate Soul is not a perfect Man a Man by the original Constitution of his Nature consists of Soul and Body and therefore his perfect happiness requires the united glory and happiness of both parts of the whole Man. Which is not considered by those who cannot apprehend any necessity why the Body should rise again since as they conceive the Soul might be as completely and perfectly happy without it But yet the Soul would not be an intire and perfect Man for a Man consists of Soul and Body a Soul in a state of Separation how happy soever otherwise it may be has still this mark of God's displeasure on it that it has lost its body and therefore the Reunion of our Souls and Bodies has at least this advantage in it that it is a perfect restoring of us to the Divine Favour that the badge and memorial of our Sin and Apostacy is done away in the Resurrection of our Bodies and therefore this is called the Adoption viz. the Redemption of our Bodies 8. Rom. 23. For then it is that God publickly owns us for his Sons when he raises our dead Bodies into a glorious and immortal Life And besides this I think we have no reason to doubt but the Reunion of Soul and Body will be a new addition of Happiness and Glory for though we cannot guess what the pleasures of glorified Bodies are yet sure we cannot imagine that when these earthly Bodies are the instruments of so many pleasures a spiritual and glorified Body should be of no use A Soul and Body cannot be vitally united but there must be a sympathy between them and receive mutual impressions from each other and then we need not doubt but that such glorified Bodies will highly minister though in a way unknown to us to the pleasures of a divine and perfect Soul will infinitely more contribute to the divine pleasures of the Mind then these earthly Bodies do to our sensual pleasures That all who have this hope and expectation may as St. Paul speaks earnestly groan within themselves waiting for the adoption even the redemption of our bodies 8. Rom. 23. This being the day of the Marriage of the Lamb this consummates our Happiness when our Bodies and Souls meet again not to disturb and oppose each other as they do in this World where the Flesh and the Spirit are at perpetual Enmity but to live in eternal Harmony and to heighten and inflame each others Joys Now this consideration that Death being a putting off these Bodies the Resurrection of the Dead must be the raising our Bodies into a new and immortal Life and the Reunion of them to our Souls suggests many useful thoughts to us For This teaches us how we are to use our Bodies how we are to prepare them for Immortality and Glory Death which is the separation of Soul and Body is the punishment of Sin and indeed it is the cure of it too for Sin is such a Leprosie as cannot be perfectly cleansed without pulling down the House which it has once infected But if we would have these Bodies raised up again immortal and glorious we must begin the Cleansing and Purification of them here We must be sanctified throughout both in body soul and spirit 1 Thess. 5. 23. Our Bodies must be the Temples of the Holy Ghost must be holy and consecrated places 1 Cor. 6. 19. must not be polluted with filthy Lusts if we would have them rebuilt again by the Divine Spirit after the desolations which Sin hath made Thus St. Paul tells us at large 8. Rom. 10 11 12 13. And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness That is that divine and holy Nature which we receive from
the greatest Sinners to Baptism and justifying them by the Blood of Christ and what the Gospel requires of baptized Christians to continue in this justified State In the first case nothing is required but Faith and Repentance upon which account we are so frequently said to be justified by faith not by the deeds of the law to be justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Iesus to be saved by grace thro' faith not of works least any man should boast And I believe upon inquiry it will be found that Justification by Faith always relates to this Baptismal Justification when by Baptism we are received into Covenant with God and into a justified State only for the sake of Christ and through Faith in his Blood which one thing well considered would put an end to most of the Disputes about Justification and about Faith and Works which I cannot explain now but shall only observe that the constant opposition between Justification by the Faith of Christ and Justification by Circumcision and the Works of the Law to the observation of which they were obliged by Circumcision is a manifest proof that Justification by Faith is our Justification by the Faith of Christ in Baptism which is our admission into the Christian Church makes us the Members of Christ and the Children of God which is a state of Grace and Justification as Circumcision formerly made them God's peculiar People in Covenant with him which is the Justification of Circumcision and Justification by Faith and Justification by Circumcision would not be duly opposed if they did not relate to the same kind of Justification that is that Justification which is the immediate effect of our being in Covenant with God. But now when we are justified by a general Repentance and Faith in Christ at Baptism we also vow a conformity to the Death of Christ by dying to sin and walking in newness of life that is we vow an universal Obedience to all the Laws of Righteousness which the Gospel requires of us as Circumcision made them debtors to the whole law which is the reason why the Works of the Law and that Evangelical Righteousness which the Faith of Christ requires of us are so often opposed in this Dispute the one the Righteousness of the Law or of Works the other the Righteousness of Faith and therefore as Circumcision could not justifie those who transgressed the Law no more will Faith justifie those who disobey the Gospel but the righteousness of the law must be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Now the necessary consequence of this is that meer Sorrow for Sin and the meer Vows and Resolutions of Obedience without actual Holiness and Obedience of Life according to the terms and conditions of the Gospel will not save a baptized Christian for meer Sorrow for Sin and Vows of Obedience will be accepted only in Baptism but when we are baptized we must put our Vows in execution or we fall from our Baptismal Grace and Justification and therefore when we relapse into Sin after Baptism no Repentance will be accepted but that which actually reforms our lives for Baptismal Grace is not ordinarily repeated no more than we can repeat our Baptism This I take to be the true meaning of that very difficult place 6 Heb. 4 5 6. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of GOD and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of GOD afresh and put him to open shame This severe passage occasioned some dispute about the Canonical Authority of this Epistle for it was thought that the Apostle here excluded all Men from the benefit of Repentance who fell into sin again after Baptism but it is certain this is not the Apostle's meaning nor do the words import any such Doctrine but his meaning is either that Men who have been baptized and thoroughly instructed in the Christian Religion may sin themselves into an impossibility of Repentance which is the most ordinary interpretation of the words and which sence I gave before of them and is in part the true sence though I think not the whole or that Men after Baptism may fall into such a state as nothing can deliver them out of but Baptismal Grace and Regeneration and since Baptism cannot be repeated the state of such Men is hopeless and desperate according to the terms of the Gospel however God may deal with them by a Soveraign and Prerogative Grace for tho' we can expect and rely on no other Grace but what God has promised in his Gospel yet God does not absolutely confine himself nor must we confine his Grace and this he tells us is the case of all Apostates from the Christian Faith The understanding of this is necessary to my present purpose and therefore I shall briefly explain it 1. That the Apostle here speaks of persons who were baptized is plain from the words Those who were once enlightned the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are those who have been once baptized for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the ancient Writers signifies Baptism as Iustin Martyr himself tells us in his second Apology that Baptism is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Illumination because their minds are enlightned by it and being once enlightned plainly refers it to Baptism which can be administred but once and what follows proves this to be the meaning of it and have tasted of the heavenly gift that is saith St. Chrysostom received remission of Sins in Baptism and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost the Holy Spirit being given at Baptism and have tasted of the good word of GOD been instructed in the Doctrines of the Gospel which in the Apostolick Age immediately followed Baptism for Men were then admitted to Baptism immediately upon their profession of Repentance and Faith in Christ and were afterwards instructed in the Christian Religion and the powers of the world to come that is those miraculous Gifts and Powers which were bestowed on the Apostles for a confirmation of the Faith of Christ and which most Christians did in some degree or other partake of in Baptism This is a plain Description of Baptism with the effects and consequents of it 2. That he speaks of such as after Baptism totally Apostatize from the Faith of Christ is as plain for they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those who fall away From what from their Christian Profession which they made at their Baptism that is who renounce the Faith of Christ and turn Iews or Heathens again for these Men crucify to themselves the Son of GOD afresh and put him to open shame that is they declare him to be an Impostor
Body or they could never have made Gods of them Nay there is such a strong sense of Immortality imprinted on our natures that very few Men how much soever they have debauched their natural Sentiments can wholly deliver themselves from the fears of another World. But we have a more sure Word of Prophesie than this Since Life and Immortality is now brought to light by the Gospel For this is so plainly taught in Scripture that no Man who believes that needs any other proof My business therefore only shall be to show you how such thoughts as these should affect our minds What that Wisdom is which the thoughts of Death will naturally teach us how that Man ought to live who knows that he must die and leave his Body behind him to rot in the Grave and go himself into a new World of Spirits SECT I. The first Notion of Death that it is our leaving this World with the improvement of it 1. FIrst then let us consider Death only as our leaving this World a very delightful place you 'l say especially when our circumstances are easie and prosperous here a Man finds whatever he most naturally loves whatever he takes pleasure in the supply of all his wants the gratification of all his senses whatever an earthly creature can wish for or desire The truth is few Men know any other happiness much less any thing above it they feel what strikes upon their senses this they think a real and substantial good but as for more pure and intellectual joys they know no more what to make of them than of Ghosts and Spirits they account them thin vanishing things and wonder what Men mean who talk so much of them Nay good Men themselves are apt to be too much pleased with this World while they are easy here something else is necessary to wean them from it and to cure their fondness of it besides the thoughts of dying which makes the Sufferings and Afflictions and Disappointments of this Life so necessary for the best of Men. This is one thing which makes the thoughts of Death so terrible Men think themselves very well as they are and most Men think that they cannot be better and therefore very few are desirous of a change Extream miseries may conquer the love of Life and some few Divine Souls may long with St. Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all but this World is a beloved place to the generality of Mankind and that makes it a very troublesom thing to leave it whereas did we rightly consider this matter it would rectifie our mistakes about these things and teach us how to value and how to use them For 1. If we must leave this World how valuable soever these things are in themselves they are not so valuable to us For besides the intrinsick worth of things there is somthing more required to engage the Affections of Wise Men. viz. Propriety and a secure Enjoyment What is not our own we may admire if it be Excellent but cannot dote on and what is worth having increases or decreases in value proportionably to the length and certainty of its continuance what we cannot enjoy is nothing to us how excellent soever it be and to enjoy it but a little while is next to not enjoying it for we cannot enjoy it always and such things cannot be called our own and this shows us what value we ought to set upon this World and all things in it e'en just so much as upon things that are not our own and which we cannot keep We use indeed to call things our own which we have a legal title to which no Man can by Law or Justice deprive us of and this is the only property we can have in these things a property against all other human claims but nothing which can be taken from us nothing which we must leave is properly our own for in a strict sense nothing is our own but what is Essential either to our Being or to our Happiness Creatures are Proprietors of nothing not so much as of themselves for we are his who made us and who may unmake us again when he pleases but yet there are some things proper to our natures and that is all the natural propriety we have but what is thus proper to us we cannot be deprived of without ceasing to be or being miserable And this proves that the things of this World are not our own that they are not proper and peculiar to our natures though they are necessary to this present state of Life While we live here we want them but when we leave this World we must live without them and may be happy without them too There is a great agreeableness between the things of this World and an Earthly nature they are a great support and comfort to us in this mortal state and therefore while we live in this World we may value the enjoyments of it for the ease and conveniencies of Life but we must neither call this Life nor any enjoyments of it our own because they are short and perishing we are here but as Travellers in an Inn it is not our Home and Country it is not our Portion and Inheritance but a moveable and changeable Scene which is entertaining at present but cannot last Let us then consider how we ought to value such things as these and to make it as plain and self-evident as I can I shall put some easie and familiar Cases 1. Suppose you were a Travelling through a very delightful Country where you met with all the Pleasures and Conveniencies of Life but knew that you must not tarry there but only pass through it would you think it reasonable to set your Affections so much upon it as to make it uneasie to you to leave it And shall we then grow so fond of this World which we must only pass thorough where we have no abiding City as to enslave our selves to the Lusts and Pleasures of it and to carry out of this World such a Passion for it as shall make us miserable in the next For tho' Death will separate us from this World we are not sure that it will cure our Earthly Passions we may still find the torment of Sensual Appetites when all Sensual Objects are removed This was all the Purgatory-fire St. Austin could think of that those who loved this World too much here though otherwise innocent and vertuous Men should be punished with fruitless desires and hankerings after this World in the next which is a mixt torment of desire and despair For though indeed it is only living in these Bodies which betrays the Soul to such Earthly Affections yet when the impression is once made and is strong and vigorous we are not sure that merely putting off these Bodies will cure it as we see Age it self in Old Sinners does not cure the wantonness of Desire when the Body is effaete and languid
and then thou shalt not so much as see the God thou worshippest the Earth shall shortly cover thee and then thou shalt have thy mouth and belly full of clay and dust Such thoughts as these will cool our desires to this present World will make us contented when we have enough and very charitable and liberal of what we can spare For what should we do with more in this World than will carry us thorough it What better and wiser use can we make of such Riches as we cannot carry with us into the other World than to return them thither before hand in acts of Piety and Charity that we may receive the rewards and recompences of them in a better life that we may make to our selves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that when we fail they may receive us into everlasting habitations When he finds his mind begin to swell and to encrease as his fortune and honours do Lord thinks he what a bubble is this which every breath of Air can blow away How vain a thing is Man in his greatest glory who appears gay and beautiful like a Flower in the Spring and is as soon cut down and withered Though we should meet with no change in our fortune here yet we shall suddenly be removed out of this World the scene of this life will change and there is an end of earthly Greatness And what a contemptible mind is that which is swelled with dying Honours which looks big indeed as a body does which is swelled out of all proportion with a Dropsy or Timpany but that is its Disease not a natural Beauty What am I better than the poorest Man who beggs an Alms unless I be wiser and more vertuous than he Can Lands and Houses great Places and Titles things which are not ours and which we cannot keep make such a mighty difference between one man and another are these the Riches are these the Beauties and Glories of a Spirit are we not all made of the same mould is not God the Father of us all must we not all die alike and lie down in the dust together and can the different parts we act in this World which are not so long as the Scene of a Play compared to an eternal Duration make such a vast difference between men This will make men humble and modest in the highest fortune as minding them that when they are got to the top-round of Honour if they keep from falling yet they must be carried down again and laid as low as the dust Thus when he finds the Body growing upon the Mind and intoxicating it with the love of sensual Pleasures he remembers that his Body must die and all these Pleasures must die with it that they are indeed killing Pleasures which kill a mortal Body before its time that it does not become a man who is but a Traveller in this World but a Pilgrim and a Stranger here to study Ease and Softness and Luxury that a Soul which must live for ever should seek after more lasting Pleasures which may survive the Funeral of the Body and be a spring of ravishing Joys when he is stript of Flesh and Blood. These are the thoughts which the consideration of Death will suggest to us as I have already shewed you And it is impossible for a man who has always these thoughts at hand to be much imposed on by the Pageantry of this World by the transient Honours and Pleasures of it It is indeed I think a very impracticable Rule which some men give To live always as if we were to die the next moment Our lives should always be as innocent as if we were immediately to give up our accounts to God but it is impossible to have always those sensible apprehensions of Death about us which we have when we see it approaching but though we cannot live as if we were immediately to die which would put an end not only to all innocent Mirth but to all the necessary Business of the World which I believe no dying man would concern himself for yet we may and we ought to live as those who must certainly die and ought to have these thoughts continually about us as a guard upon our actions For whatever is of such mighty consequence to us as Death is if it be certain ought always to give Laws to our Behaviour and Conversation 2ly If it be certain we must die the very first thing we ought to do in this World after we come to years of understanding should be to prepare for Death that whenever Death comes we may be ready for it This I confess is not according to the way of this World for dying is usually the last thing they take care of This is thought a little unseasonable while men are young and healthful and vigorous but besides the uncertainty of our lives and that it is possible while we delay Death may seize on us before we are provided for it and then we must be miserable for ever which I shall speak to under the next Head. I doubt not but to convince every considering man that an early Preparation for Death is the very best means to make our lives happy in this World while we do continue here Nor shall I urge here how a life of Holiness and Vertue which is the best and only Preparation for Death tends to make us happy in this World delivers us from all those Mischiefs which the wildness and giddiness of Youth and the more confirmed debaucheries of riper Years expose Men too for this is properly the commendation of Vertue not of an early Preparation for Death And yet this is really a great engagement and motive to prepare betimes for Death since such a Preparation for Death will put us to no greater hardships and inconveniencies than the practice of such Vertues as will prolong our lives preserve or increase our fortunes give us honour and reputation in the World and makes us beloved both by God and men But setting aside these things there are two advantages of an early Preparation for Death which contribute more to our Happiness than all the World besides 1. That it betimes delivers us from the fears of Death and consequently from most other fears 2ly That it supports us under all the troubles and calamities of this life 1. It betimes delivers us from the sears of Death and indeed it is then only a man begins to live when he is got above the fears of Death Were men thoughtful and considerate Death would hang over them in all their Mirth and Jollity like a fatal Sword by a single Hair it would sowre all their Enjoyments and strike terror into their hearts and looks But the security of most men is that they put off the thoughts of Death as they do their preparation for it they live secure and free from danger onely because they will not open their eyes to see it But these are such examples as no