revealed in us, Rom. viii. 18. The evils of this life afflict men more or lefs, according as the foul is fortified with confiderations proper to fupport us under them. When we confider that we have but a little while to be here, that we are upon our journey travelling towards our heavenly country, where we fhall meet all the delights we can defire, it ought not to trouble us much to endure ftorms and foul ways, and to want many of thofe accommodations we might expect at home. This is the common fate of travellers; and we must take things as we find them, and not look to have every thing just to our mind. These difficulties and inconveniences will fhortly be over, and after a few days will be quite forgotten, and be to us as if they had never been. And when we are fafely landed in our own country, with what pleasure shall we look back upon thofe rough and boisterous feas which we have escaped? The more trouble we have paffed through, the kinder ufage we fhall find when we come to our Father's houfe. So the apoftle tells us, that our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. When we come to heaven, our happiness fhall then be as real as our miferies were here upon earth, and far greater, and more lafting. And what great matter is it, though we fuffer a while in this world, provided we escape the endless unfufferable torments of the next? though we have not our good things in this life, if infinitely greater be referved for us, and we fhall receive them with intereft in the other?

Several of the evils and calamities of this life would be infufferable indeed, if there were nothing better to be hoped for hereafter. If this were true, Chriftians would not only be of all men, but of all creatures, the moft miferable. But our religion hath abundantly af fured us to the contrary. And the affurance of this was that which made the primitive Chriftians to embrace fufferings with fo much chearfulness; to glory in tribulation, and to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that in heaven they had a better and more enduring fubftance. The feven brethren, in the hiftory of the Maccabees, upon this perfuafion, would not accept deliverance, that they might obtain a better refurrec◄

tion. That storm of stones which was poured upon St Stephen, was no more to him than a common fhower, when he faw the heavens opened, and Jefus (in whofe cause he suffered) ftanding on the right hand of God.

4. To make us fincere in all our profeffions, words, and actions. Did men firmly believe the rewards of another world, their religion would not be only in fhew and pretence, but in life and reality; no man would put on a form of godliness, that were deftitute of the power of it: we should do nothing for the opinion of others, but all with regard to God and our own confciences; and be as curious of our thoughts, and most retired actions, as if we were in an open theatre, and in the prefence of the greatest affembly. For in the next life men fhall not be rewarded for what thev feemed to be, but for what they really were in this world. Therefore, whatever we think, or fpeak, or do, we should always remember, that the day of revelation is coming, when the fecrets of all hearts shall be disclosed; when all difguifes fhall be laid afide, and every one's mask fhall be taken off; and all our actions and defigns fhall be brought upon the public ftage, and expofed to the view of men and angels: There is nothing now hidden which shall not then be revealed, nor fecret which shall not be made known.

5. To arm us against the fears of death. Death is terrible to nature; and the terror of it is infinitely increased by the fearful apprehenfions of what may follow it. But the comfortable hopes of a bleffed immortality do ftrangely relieve the fainting fpirits of dying men, and are able to reconcile us to death, and in a great measure to take away the terror of it. I know that the thoughts of death are difmal even to good men; and we have never more need of comfort and encouragement, than when we are conflicting with this last ene my; and there is no fuch comfortable confideration to a dying man, as the hopes of a happy eternity. He that looks upon death only as a paffage to glory, may welcome the meffengers of it, as bringing him the best and moft joyful 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 implied in

this phrafe, of having our converfation in heaven, viz. the ferious thoughts and confiderations of heaven, and the effect of thefe thoughts and confiderations upon our hearts and lives.

I crave your patience but a little longer, till I make fome reflections upon what hath been delivered concern ing the happinefs 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 itself, and eternal in its duration, and far above any thing that we can now conceive or imagine. And now, after all this, I am ve ry fenfible how much all that I have said comes fhort of the greatness and dignity of the thing. So that I could almoft begin again, and make a new attempt upon this fubject. And indeed who would not be loath to be taken off from fo delightful an argument? Methinks it is

good for us to be here, and let our minds dwell upon thefe confiderations. We are unworthy of heaven, and unfit to partake of fo great a glory, if we cannot take pleasure in the contemplation of thofe things now, the poffeffion whereof thall be our happiness for ever.

With what joy then fhould we think of thofe great and glorious things which God hath prepared for them that love him; of that inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, which fadeth not away, referved for us in the heavens ? How should we welcome the thoughts of that happy hour, when we shall make our escape out of these prifons; when we shall pass out of this howling wilderness into the promised land; when we fhall be removed from all the troubles and temptations of a wicked and ill-natured world; when we fhall be past all storms, and fecured from all further danger of fhipwreck, and shall be fafely landed in the regions of blifs and immortality?

O bleffed time! when all tears fhall be wiped from our eyes, and death and forrow shall be no more; when mortality fhall be fwallowed up of life, and we shall enter upon the poffeffion of all that happiness and glory which God hath promifed, and our faith hath believed, and our hopes have raised us to the expectation of; when we shall be eafed of all our pains, and refolved of .all our doubts, and be purged from all our fins, and be freed from all our fears, and be happy beyond all our

hopes

hopes, and have all this happiness fecured to us beyond the power of time and change; when we fhall know God and other things without ftudy, and love him and one another without measure, and ferve and praise him without wearinefs, and obey his will without the leaft reluctancy; and shall still be more and more delighted in the knowing, and loving, and praising, and obeying of God to all eternity.

How fhould thefe thoughts affect our hearts, and what a mighty influence ought they to have upon our lives? The great difadvantage of the arguments fetched from another world is this, that thofe things are at a great distance from us, and not fenfible to us; and therefore are not apt to affect us so strongly, and to work fo powerfully upon us. Now, to make amends for this difadvantage, we fhould often revive these confiderations upon our minds, and inculcate upon ourselves the reality and certainty of these things, together with the infinite weight and importance of them. We fhould reafon thus with ourselves: If good men fhall be fo unfpeakably happy, and confequently wicked men fo extremely miferable, in another world; if these things be true, and will one day be found to be fo, why should they not be to me as if they were already prefent? why fhould not I be as much afraid to commit any fin, as if hell were naked before me, and I faw the aftonishing miferies of the damned? and why should I not be as careful to serve God, and keep his commandments, as if heaven were open to my view, and I faw Jefus ftanding at the right hand of God, with crowns of glory in his hand ready to be fet upon the heads of all those who continue faithful to him?

The lively apprehenfions of the nearness of death and eternity, are apt to make mens thoughts more quick and piercing; and, according as we think ourselves prepared for our future ftate, to tranfport us with joy, or to amaze us with horror: for the foul that is fully fatisfied of his future blifs, is already entered into heaven, has begun to take poffeffion of glory, and has, as it were, his blefled Saviour in his arms; and may fay, with old Simeon, Lord, now letteft thou thy fervant depart in peace for mine eyes have feen thy falvation. But the thoughts

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thoughts of death muft needs be very terrible to that man, who is doubtful or despairing of his future condition. It would daunt the ftouteft man that ever breathed, to look upon death, when he can fee nothing but hell beyond it. When the apparition at Endor told Saul, To-morrow, thou and thy sons shall be with me, thefe words ftruck him to the heart; fo that he fell down to the ground, and there was no more strength left in him. It is as certain that we fhall die, as if an exprefs meffenger fhould come to every one of us from the other world, and tell us fo: why fhould we not then always live as those that.muft die, and as thofe that hope to be happy after death? To have these apprehenfions vigorous and lively upon our minds, this is to have our converfation in heaven; from whence also we look for our Saviour, the Lord Jefus Chrift; 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 fubdue all things to himself.

SERMON

IX.

Of the end of judgements, and the reason of

their continuance..

ISAIAH ix. 12. 13.

For all this his anger is is ftretched out fill. him that fmiteth them, hofts.

T

not turned away, but his hand For the people turneth not unto neither do they feek the Lord of

N the former part of the 12th verfe, the prophet threatens that Ifrael fhould be brought into great diftrefs, and be fet upon by enemies on every fide, the Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and that they should devour Israel with open mouth. And though