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dictates of our reafon arguing us into this perfuafion, front the confideration of the juftice of the divine providence, and from the promifcuous and unequal adminiftration of things in this world; from whence wife men in all ages have been apt to conclude, that there will be another ftate of things after this life, wherein rewards and punishments fhall be equally diftributed. We have the general confent of mankind in this matter. And, to affure us that thefe reafonings are true, we have a most credible revelation of thefe things; God having fent his Son from heaven to declare it to us, and given us a fenfible demonftration of the thing in his refurrection from the dead, and his visible ascension into heaven. So that there is no kind of evidence wanting that the thing is capable of, but only our own fenfe and experience of thefe things; of which we are not capable in this prefent ftate. And there is no objection against all this, but what will bring all things into uncertainty which do not come under our fenfes, and which we ourselves have not feen.

Nor is there any confiderable interest to hinder men from the belief of these things, or to make them hesitate about them. For as for the other world, if at last there fhould prove to be no fuch thing, our condition after

death will be the fame with the condition of those who difbelieve these things; becaufe all will be extinguished by death. But if things fall out otherwife, as most undoubtedly they will, and our fouls after this life do pass into a state of everlasting happiness or mifery, then our great intereft plainly lies in preparing ourfelves for this ftate: and there is no other way to fecure the great concernments of another world, but by believing those things to be true, and governing all the actions of our lives by this belief. And as for the interefts of this life, they are but short and tranfitory, and confequently of no confideration in comparison of the things which are eternal; and yet, as I have often told you, fetting afide the cafe of perfecution for religion, there is no real intereft of this world, but it may be as well promoted, and purfued to as great advantage, nay, ufually to a far greater, by him that believes these things, and lives accordingly, than by any other perfon: for the belief of

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the rewards and punishments of another world, is the greatest motive and encouragement to virtue. And as all vice is naturally attended with fome temporal inconvenience; fo the practice of all Chriftian virtues doth, in its own nature, tend both to the welfare of particular perfons, and to the peace and profperity of mankind.

But that which ought to weigh very much with us, is, that we have abundantly more affurance of the recompence of another world, than we have of many things in this world, which yet have a greater influence upon our actions, and govern the lives of the most prudent and confiderate men. Men generally hazard their lives and eftates upon terms of greater uncertainty than the affurance which we have of another world. Men venture to take phyfick upon probable grounds of the integrity and fkill of their phyfician; and yet the want of either of thefe may hazard their lives. And men take phyfick upon greater odds; for it certainly caufeth pain and ficknefs, and doth but uncertainly procure and recover health: the patient is fure to be made fick, but not certain to be made well: and yet the danger of being worse, if not of dying, on the one hand, and the hope of fuccefs and recovery on the other, make this hazard and trouble reasonable. Men venture their whole estates to places which they never faw; and that there are fuch places, they have only the concurrent teftimony and agreement of men; nay, perhaps have only fpoken with them that have fpoken with thofe that have been there. No merchant ever infifted upon the evidence of a miracle to be wrought, to fatisfy him that there were fuch places as the Eaft and Weft Indies, before he would venture to trade thither: and yet this affurance God hath been pleased to give the world of a ftate beyond the grave, and of a blessed immortality in another life.

Now, what can be the reafon that fo flender evidence, fo fmall a degree of affurance, will ferve to encourage men to feek after the things of this world with great care and industry; and yet a great deal more will not fuffice to put them effectually upon looking after the great concernments of another world, which are infinitely more confiderable No other reafon of this can be given, but that men are partial in their affections to

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wards thefe things. It is plain they have not the fame love for God and religion, which they have for this world and the advantages of it; and therefore it is, that a lefs degree of affurance will engage them to feek after the one, than the other and yet the reafon is much ftronger on the other fide; for the greater the benefit and good is which is offered to us, we fhould be the more eager to feek after it, and fhould be content to venture upon lefs probability. Upon exceffive odds, a man would venture upon very fmall hopes for a mighty advantage, a man would be content to run a great hazard of his labour and pains upon little affurance. Where a man's life is concerned, every fufpicion of danger will make a man careful to avoid it. And will nothing affright men from hell, unless God carry them thither, and fhew them the place of torments, and the flames of that fire which fhall never be quenched?

I do not speak this, as if these things had not abundant evidence; I have fhewn that they have; but to convince men how unreafonable and cruelly partial they are about the concernments of their fouls, and their eternal happiness.

2. Suppofing these things to be real and certain, they are of infinite concernment to us. For what can concern us more, than that eternal and unchangeable state, in which we must be fixed and abide for ever? If fo valt a concern will not move us, and have no influence upon the government of our lives and actions, we do not deferve the name of reafonable creatures. What confideration can be fet before men, who are not touched with the fenfe of fo great an intereft, as that of our happy or miferable being to all eternity? Can we be fo folicitous and careful about the concernment of a few days; and is it nothing to us what becomes of us for ever? Are we fo tenderly concerned to avoid poverty and difgrace, perfecution and fuffering in this world; and shall we not much more flee from the wrath which is to come, and endeavour to escape the damnation of hell? Are the flight and tranfitory enjoyments of this world worth fo much thought and care; and is an eternal inheritance in the heavens not worth the looking after? As there is no proportion betwixt the things which are temporal,

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and the things which are eternal; fo we ought in all rea fon to be infinitely more concerned for the one than for the other.

The proper inference from all this difcourfe is, that we would endeavour to ftrengthen in ourselves this great principle of a Chriftian life, the belief of another world, by representing to ourselves all thofe arguments and confiderations which may confirm us in this perfuafion. The more reasonable our faith is, and the furer grounds it is built upon, the more firm it will abide, when it comes to the trial, against all the impreffions of temptations, and affaults of perfecution. If our faith of another world be only a strong imagination of these things, fo foon as tribulation arifeth, it will wither; becaufe it hath no root in itself. Upon this account, the Apostle fo often exhorts Christians to endeavour to be eftablished in the truth, to be rooted and grounded in the faith, that when perfecution comes, they may continue ftedfaft and unmoveable. This firmnefs of our belief will have a great influence upon our lives: if we be ftedfast and unmoveable in our perfuafion of these things, we fhall be abundant in the work of the Lord. The Apoftle joins thefe together, 1 Cor. xv. 58. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye ftedfaft and unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forafmuch as ye know that your labour fhall not be in vain in the Lord. Stedfaft and unmoveable, in what? In the belief of a bleffed refurrection; which the more firmly any man believes, the more active and induftrious will he be in the work and fervice of God.

And that our faith may have a conftant and powerful influence upon our lives, we fhould frequently revolve in our minds the thoughts of another world, and of that vaft eternity which we fha!! fhortly launch into. The great difadvantage of the arguments fetched from another world is this, that these things are at a distance from us, and not sensible to us, and therefore we are not apt to be fo affected with them; present and fenfible things weigh down all other confiderations. And therefore, to balance this disadvantage, we should often have thefe thoughts in our minds, and inculcate upon ourfelves the certainty of these things, and the infinite

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concernment of them; we should reason thus with ourfelves If thefe things be true, and will certainly be, why fhould they not be to me, as if they were actually prefent? why fhould not I always live, as if heaven were open to my view, and I faw Fefus ftanding at the right hand of God, with crowns of glory in his hands, ready to be fet upon the heads of all thofe who continue faithful and obedient to him? and why fhould I not be as much afraid to commit any fin, as if hell were naked before me, and I faw the aftonifhing miferies of the damned?

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Thus we should, by frequent meditation, represent thefe great things to ourselves, and bring them nearer to our minds, and oppofe to the prefent temptations of fenfe, the great and endless happiness and mifery of the other world. And if we would but thus exercife ourfelves about the things which are not seen, and make eternity familiar to ourselves, by a frequent meditation of it, we fhould be very little moved with prefent and fenfible things; we fhould walk and live by faith, as the men of the world do by fenfe; and be more ferious and carneft in the purfuit of our great and everlasting intereft, than they are in the purfuit of fenfual enjoyments; and should make it the great bufinefs of this prefent and temporal life, to fecure a future and eternal happiness.

SERMON

LXV.

The danger of apoftafy from the true religion.

HE B. X. 38.

But if any man draw back, my foul fhall have no pleasure in him.

T

HE great defign of this epiftle (whoever was the author of it, which I fhall not now inquire into) is plainly this, to confirm the Jews who were but newly converted to Christianity, in the ftedfaft pro

feffion

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