Ser.7 9. follow them, or rather go along with them, to receive the reward which God hath promised to them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, feek for glory, and honour, and immortality.

1. Those who die in the Lord, are freed from the evils and miseries of this life. And this is fo great a felicity, that fome, and those who think themselves no small philofophers, have placed the chief happiness of man in freedom from pain and trouble. But though happiness do not confift in this alone; yet it cannot be denied to be a great part of it: for though fome have been fo fantaftically obftinate, as, against the reafon and common fenfe of mankind, to maintain this paradox, That 66 a wife man may be as happy upon the rack, or in "Phalaris's bull, as in the greatest ease, and freedom "from pain, that can be imagined; " yet nature cries fhame of this hypocrify: and there are none of those wife men they fpeak of were ever fuch fools as to try the experiment, and to fhew by their actions, that it was indifferent to them, whether they laid themselves down upon their beds every night, or were ftretched upon a rack; which yet ought to have been indifferent to them, had they believed themfelves, and really esteemed that which others account pain, to be as happy a condition as that which is commonly called ease.

But we need not trouble ourselves to confute fo ftupid a principle, which is confuted by nature, and by every man's fenfe and experience. I think we may take it for granted, that freedom from mifery is a very confiderable part of happiness; otherwise heaven and hell, if we confider only the torment of it, would be all one. But certainly it is no fmall endearment of religion to the common fenfe of mankind, that it promifeth to us in the next life a freedom from all the evils and troubles of this. And by this the happiness of heaven is frequently defcribed to us in fcripture: If. lvii. 2. fpeaking of the righteous man, He fhall enter into peace: they fhall reft in their beds. 2 Theff. i. 6. 7. where the Apostle fpeaking of the reward of those who should fuffer perfecution for religion, It is a righteous thing with God (fays he) to recompenfe to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jefus fhall be revealed from heaven,

347 with his mighty angels. And the Apostle to the Hebrews frequently defcribes the happiness of Chriftians, by entering into reft. And Rev. xxi. 4. the state of the new Jerufalem is fet forth to us, by deliverance from those troubles and forrows which men are fubject to in this world: And God fhall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there fhall be no more death, neither forrow, nor crying, neither fhall there be any more pain: for the former things are paffed away.

Thus it is with us in this world; we are liable to forrow, and pain, and death. But when we are once got to heaven, none of these things fhall approach us: The former things are passed away; that is, the evils we formerly endured are past and over, and shall never return to afflict us any more.

And is not this a great comfort, when we are labouring under the evils of this life, and conflicting forely with the miseries of it, that we fhall one day be paft all these, and find a safe refuge and retreat from all these ftorms and tempefts: when we are loaded with afflictions, and even tired with the burden of them, and ready to faint and fink under it; to think that there remains a reft for us into which we shall shortly enter? How can it chufe but be a mighty confolation to us, whilst we are in this vale of tears and troubles, to be affured that the time is coming, when God fhall wipe away all tears from our eyes, and there fhall be no more forrow nor crying?

There are none of us, but are obnoxious to any of the evils of this life; we feel fome of them, and we fear more. Our outward condition, it may be, is uncomfortable; we are poor and perfecuted; we are deftitute of friends, or have many enemies; we are defpoiled of many of thofe comforts and enjoyments which we once had our bodies perhaps are in pain, or our fpirits troubled; or though we have no real caufe of outward trouble, yet our fouls are ill lodged in the dark dungeon of a body overpowered with a melancholy humour, which keeps out all light and comfort from our minds.

And is it no reviving to us, to think of that happy hour, when we shall find a remedy and redress of all thefe evils at once; of that bleffed place, where we shall take fanctuary

fanctuary from all thofe afflictions and troubles which pursued us in this world; where forrow, and misery, and death, are perfect strangers, and into which nothing that can render men in the least unhappy, can ever enter; where our fouls fhall be in perfect rest and contentment, and our bodies after a while fhall be restored and reunited to our fouls; not to cloud and clog them, as they do here, but fo happily changed and refined to fuch a perfection, that they fhall be fo far from giving any difturbance to our minds, that they shall mightily add to their pleasure and happiness?

And when we are once landed in those bleffed regions, what a comfort will it be to us, to ftand on the shore, and look back upon those rough and dangerous feas which we have escaped? how pleasant to confider the manifold evils and calamities which we are freed from, and for ever fecured against ? to remember our past labours and fufferings, and to be able to defy all those temptations, which were wont to affault us in this world with fo much violence, and with too much fuccefs?

And this is the condition of the bleffed fpirits above, They find a perfect ceffation of all afflictions and troubles: They reft from their labours. But this is not all: for,

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2. They are not only freed from all the evils and fufferings they were exercised withal in this world, but they fhall receive a plentiful reward of all the good they have done in it: Their works do accompany them. pious fouls go out of this world, they do not only leave all the evils of the world behind them, but they carry along with them all the good they have done, to reap there the comfort and reward of it. Juft as, on the o ther hand, wicked men, when they die, leave all the good things of this world, all the pleasures and enjoy. ments, behind them; but the guilt and remorfe of their wicked lives accompany them, and stick close to them, to torment them there, and that there they may be tor: mented for them.

Thus the fcriptures reprefent to us the different condition of good and bad men, If. iii. 10. 11. Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they hall eat the fruit of their doings. Wo unto the wicked, it shall be

ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him. Which is many times true in this world; but however that happen, will moft certainly and remarkably be made good in the other. And this is most emphatically expreffed to us in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Luke xvi. 25. where the rich man petitions Abraham for fome ease, and Abraham returns him this anfwer, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedft thy good things, and likewife Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. What a change was here! how comfortable to the one, and how difmal to the other! Lazarus found rest from all his labours and fufferings, and his piety and patience accompanied him into the other world, and conveyed him into Abraham's bofom whereas the rich man was parted from all his good things, and the guilt of his fins went along with him, and lodged him in the place of torment.

But my text confines me to the bright fide of this profpect; the confideration of that glorious recompence which good men fhall receive for the good works which they have done in this world. Indeed the text doth not exprefsly fay, that their works Jhall be rewarded; but that they fhall go along with them, and that they are bleffed upon this account: and this implies that they fhall receive a fure reward. For, as the Apostle reafons, God is not unrighteous to forget our work and labour of love. Verily there is a reward for the righteous; as fure as there is a God that judgeth in the earth.

But how great and glorious that shall be, I am not in any measure able to declare to you. It may fuffice, that the fcripture hath affured us in general, that God is the rewarder of good men ; and that he will make them happy, not according to what can now enter into our narrow thoughts, but according to the exceeding greatness of his power and goodnefs. If we are to receive our reward from God, we need not doubt but it will be very large, and fuch as is every way worthy of him to beftow. For he is a great king, and of great goodness; and we may fafely refer ourselves to him, in confidence that he will confider us, not according to the meanness of our fervice, but according to the vastness of his treafures, and the infinite bounty of his mind. If he hath VOL. IV. promifed

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promifed to make us happy, though he hath not particularly declared to us wherein this happiness fhall confift; yet we may truft him that made us, to find out ways to make us happy; and may believe, that he who made us without our knowledge or defire, is able to make us happy beyond them both.

Only, for the greater encouragement of our holiness and obedience, though he hath promised to reward every good man far beyond the proportion of any good he hath or can do; yet he hath declared, that these rewards fhall be proportionably greater or lefs, according to the degree of every man's piety and virtue. So our Saviour tells us, that they who are perfecuted for righteousness fake, great fhall be their reward in heaven, Matth. v. 12. that there will be a difference between the reward of a righteous man and a prophet; that is, of one who is more publickly and eminently useful for the falvation of others. And among those who are teachers of others, they that are more induftrious, and confequently more likely to be fuccessful in this work, fhall have a more glorious reward; as we are told by the angel, Dan. xii. 3. And they that be wife, (or as it is in the margin rendered, they that be teachers), fhall fhine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteoufnefs, as the ftars for ever and ever. So likewife we find in the parable of the talents, that he that improved his talent to ten, was made ruler over ten cities. St. Paul, 2 Cor. ix. 6. fpeaking of the degrees of mens charity and liberality towards the poor, fays exprefsly, He that foweth Sparingly, shall reap fparingly but he that foweth bountifully, shall reap bountifully; which by proportion of reafon may be extended to the exercife of all other graces and virtues. I Cor. xv. 41. 42. the Apoftle there reprefents the different degrees of glory, which good men fhall be invefted with at the refurrection, by the different glory and fplendor of the heavenly luminaries: There is one glory of the fun, another of the moon, and another glory of the ftars; for one ftar differeth from another far in glory. So alfo is the refurrection of the dead. So that the more any man fuffers for God, and the more patiently he fuffers, the more holily and virtuously, the more charitably and usefully he lives in this world; the

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