Sermons and discourses upon several occasions by G. Stradling ... ; together with an account of the author.

A SERMON ON

1 COR. XV. 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most mi∣serable.

THAT all men have an appre∣hension of another Life (which Tully calls, Saeculorum quoddam augurium futurorum, A kind of presage of a future world) is hereby evident, That they so infinitely desire and la∣bour to extend their memory beyond the limits of this, to make their fame outlast their persons, to survive them∣selves in their Issue, or in an Inscription, and that sometimes engraven on the very houses of corruption, their Sepul∣chres, fancying a remainder of Life even

in the abodes of death; or, which is yet stranger, to perpetuate their fame by their very infamy: So dreadfull a thing to Man is the very thought of Annihilation. And by how much stron∣ger men's apprehensions have been of another Life; by so much has their contempt of this been the greater. This made some Heathens so prodigal of a Life which in their opinion should re∣turn; And as it made them valiant, so has it in all Ages made Christians more. It brought them cheerfully out into the Field, and these more cheerfully to the Stake. And indeed as the meditation of death is a good remedy against the fear of it to those who look beyond it; so if it bound up men's thoughts, and shut up their prospect within the grave, if it be considered as ultima rerum linea, that, beyond which there remains no∣thing, not as a passage to another Life, but an utter close of this, it cannot but fill their Souls with the greatest hor∣ror and amazement. Now nothing can well remove this but the Doctrine of Christianity, and 'tis the great scope and design of it to doe so. It represents death to us not as an annihilation, but a

change; not as a ruine, but a dissolution; not as a bare privation of this life, but a door to another: So that when we dye now, we leave nothing behind us but our mortality; part with nothing but our corruption; nor are we so much buried in our graves, as laid up, they being but so many beds from whence we are to be rouzed; when Christ, who raised himself, shall raise us up, he who is the Head draw us after Him, who are the members; without which blessed hope we should still remain in the cham∣bers of death, the pit should not only swallow us up, but shut her mouth upon us; our graves should devour our hopes with our selves, and we should not so much dye, as in St. John's expression, be slain with death. But now since Christ hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel; now that he has not only discovered but imparted it to us, the face of things is quite changed; That which we dreaded before, we now expect; what was once a threat, is now become a promise; our greatest hope is in that which was our greatest fear; If death affright us as natural men, it

comforts us as Christians; If we be its Prisoners, we are the Prophet Zacha∣ry's prisoners of hope; It does but the of∣fice of a gentle Gaoler, only unlock our Prison door, to let us out thence into everlasting Mansions.

Of all Articles then of the Creed, there is none more comfortable than that of the Resurrection to good Chri∣stians, nor any so important even to their tranquility in this life, whose mi∣series are so great and whose satisfacti∣ons so thin and empty, that without hope of some release from them, they should be more condemn'd to live than to dye; Their life it self would even kill them; They should sink under the perpetual apprehension of a future no∣thing, hate life and still fear death, that is, not enjoy themselves here, and be a∣fraid of losing themselves for ever here∣after. Upon which score 'tis that our Apostle here is so earnest and so concer∣ned in asserting the necessity of a Resur∣rection, which Heathens and Sadduces utterly denyed, and many weak and se∣duced Christians scarce believed (some affirming it already past, others turning it into a mere Allegory.) The former

he labours to convince by reasons fetch'd from nature; The latter here in the Text by an argument ad hominem drawn from the particular interest of Chri∣stians, who of all others should most suffer, if their hopes should determine with this life: A sad and uncomforta∣ble Consequence would then follow to All, but a most absurd one also to these; Others should then be miserable, but these of all others most miserable; For,

If in this life, &c. we Christians, we Apostles especially and Ministers of Christ, should be of all men most misera∣ble.

In which words you may observe,

• 1. A false hope, a hope in Christ in this life only, with its effect, misery, and greater misery to Christians than to thers, who, upon such a supposition, are pronounc'd of all men most miserable.
• 2. A true hope, a hope in Christ not in this life only, with its effect also, Happiness. For if the other make its owners miserable and most miserable; Then this, by the Law of contraries, happy and most happy; Happy in this world as well as in the other; Though

• there most, because there is most happi∣ness; yet here too, because here is some.

The first hope and its effects are more plainly exprest; the second and its effects as necessarily imply'd, and both of them together make up the full contents of the Text.

I shall not consider the Parts so mi∣nutely as I have proposed them, but draw out the substance of them into these three following Propositions which naturally result from the Text.

• 1. That they who have no other hope but what this life affords them, are miserable.
• 2. That upon supposition of no bet∣ter hope, all good Christians, but the Ministers of Christ especially, should be not only miserable, but of all other men most miserable.
• 3. That there is another Life to come, the expectation whereof makes them who have it most happy both here and hereafter.

Of these in their order. And first,

That they who have no other hope but—

And indeed how can they be other∣wise,

since this life is so? Our early tears prognosticate our future unhappi∣ness, and we come into this world with as much sadness as we go out of it with horror. Some have curst the day of their birth, with Job; others have not thought fit to allow that Title, but to those days wherein Martyrs have suffered. Some Philosophers have affir∣med, that man's chiefest happiness had been not to have been born at all; his next, to have dyed as soon as born. Nay the Scripture it self represents our Blessed Saviour groaning when he rai∣sed up Lazarus from the dead, for this reason say some, because he saw himself as it were oblig'd by his Sisters tears to fetch him back from the happiness of the other to the miseries of this wret∣ched life. Nor can I much wonder at their fancy who have conceited that our Souls were thrust into these our Bodies as into so many prisons, since those which are most conveniently, are but ill lodg'd there, our Bodies at best, be∣ing but so many hospitals, if our Souls be any better; for as diseases plague the one, so passions and lusts as much torment the other. And here should I

declame on the miseries of humane life, the common beaten theam even of those who know no other, 'twere easie to be Eloquent. But not to speak of those accidents which befall it, we need not charge our Miseries on our Fortune, we owe them to our very Nature. Every man is a several Enoch, miserable by his very frame and make, and 'twere need∣less to borrow arguments from any thing but himself to prove him such, or go about to demonstrate what he feels. His own Experience shows him wretched in what he suffers, and Rea∣son will so even in what he enjoys. The Evil he endures sadly afflicts him, and the Good he possesses does not much affect him; His Sorrows are many and great, and his Joys but few and small; Those come unmixt, These at best but alloyed; so that Man is wholly misera∣ble, and but half happy. I shall not trouble my self to prove that he is mi∣serable in what he suffers, for he finds himself so; but, which I conceive more proper to my present purpose, endea∣vour to demonstrate, that the things of this life, were they as high as fancied, could never create any true satisfaction,

and consequently must leave a Man to misery, even in that condition wherein he takes himself to be most happy. And this will appear upon a threefold ac∣count. 1. Because they are unsatis∣factory. 2. Because not lasting. 3. Be∣cause, upon supposition of no other life, the continual fear of death would render the enjoyments of them most imper∣fect.

1. Because they are unsatisfactory, as not 1. bearing any proportion or fit∣ness to the Soul. They are material, and This spiritual. The Soul of Man being a substance of unbounded Desires, can never be pleas'd but with what is infinite. 2. And this dissatisfaction we receive from things here below, appears then most when we come to a trial: Our Enjoyment best confutes our Opi∣nion of them; then 'tis we find that they are bigger in our eye than in them∣selves; in our desire, than in our review of them; and that our expectations are far larger than our fruitions. These Ap∣ples of Sodom shew fair and beautifull, but the least touch turns them into dust, and presently discovers all their painted beauty to be but Appearance

and Illusion. 3. Add we to this, that there can be no surer mark of the dissa∣tisfaction we find in the things of this life, than that they presently cloy us. Our continued enjoyment of the best of them tires us out, as Happiness is said to have done Polycrates, and For∣tune Galba; We must be beholding to their variety for their comfort, nay to some evil to make us relish any good in them. This is that which Heathens themselves have express'd in those Me∣tamorphoses of their Gods; thereby in∣timating, that great Persons, tired out with their own Happiness, have been forc'd to descend to the Actions of their Inferiors; to disguise themselves some∣times, to ease themselves of the very burthen of their Honours, and lay aside that Grandeur which importun'd them: so that the perpetual presence of the same objects is scarce to be endured, though they tire us no otherwise than as they are always the same. And now let Philosophy tell us there is no vacui∣ty in Nature; Divinity and our own experience will assure us, that there is nothing else in the things of it.

2. But then secondly, Were the things of this life never so full in themselves and satisfactory, yet, being not lasting, all the satisfaction we find in them can be but as they are, short and fading too. What was said of Drunkenness, That 'tis but a short and merry Madness, is as true of all those brittle Comforts which carnal Men have in outward things; they are no better than one day's vanities; born this light, and not seen the next; things of so swift and dispatching a nature, that they just last long enough to have it pronounc'd of them that they have been; having two characters stampt upon them by St. Au∣gustine, that they make wretched and forsake, these two glassy properties, that they are glittering and breaking; like some pieces of dry wood that imi∣tate light, to whom belong these poor accomplishments, to shine and to be rotten. And as these things are short, so are men too; They forsake men, and men must leave them; As the fashion of this world still passeth away, so those that are in it; These earthly Tabernacles vanish like enchanted Castles; and they that dwell in them; The Inhabitants

decay as well as their Houses, and both, if no other life, must for ever lye buried in their own rubbish.

3. Which sad apprehension of a fu∣ture Annihilation, is the third thing which, of all other, makes a Man mise∣rable, and represents Death most terri∣ble. Annihilation is a thing of so dis∣mal an aspect, that some prefer a bad being to none, and think it better to be for ever miserable, than for ever not at all to be. Now he that looks upon death not as a change, but as an irre∣parable ruine, can never tast the joys of life; the constant apprehension of this future nothing, makes every thing to him as nothing; That bitter pill shall still soure his delights more than the want of one surly Jews knee did Haman's felicity. What pleasure can that Malefactor take in any thing of this world, who every minute expects his Execution? Or what relish can that man find in the choicest delicacies of Nature, who, with Damocles, sits at the Table with a Sword hanging by a little thread, ready to fall with its point upon his head? Every morsel to such a per∣son is gall. 'Tis so with him that sees

his pompous Scene of Greatness waited on by a fatal Catastrophe. And there∣fore Tully speaking as a right natural Man, is plain when he tells us, Mortis timor tollit omnem vitoe jucunditatem. This was a sad Tolling-bell to the tri∣umphing Emperor, Hominem te esse me∣mento; as it is to him that lives like a God in a kind of All-sufficiency of out∣ward enjoyments, that he must dye like a Man, nay like the Beast that perisheth. Such a persuasion would make a Socra∣tes look pale at the sight of the Hem∣lock, in spight of all those Cordials his Philosophy could furnish him with; and indeed it were easie to prove, that all those remedies it affords to abate the terror of death, are very ineffectual, and the Philosophers themselves but mise∣rable Comforters, and that, upon sup∣position of no other life to come, that so famous saying of Solon, That no man was happy till dead, would rather give him a place among the greatest fools than wise men of his time; and that part of Roman Valour so much magni∣fied, for men to offer violence to them∣selves, would, no doubt, appear as full of Madness to a natural Man, if well

considered, as it does of Impiety to a Christian, if by depriving himself of his being, he must for ever put himself out of a capacity of any future enjoy∣ment.

By these considerations you may now perceive how miserable that person needs must be who confines his hope to the things of this life, so unsatisfacto∣ry, so brittle, so perishing in their use as he that uses them too, especially when a man is persuaded he must short∣ly so perish as for ever not to be. Such a man is most unhappy in his misery, because no prospect of a better condi∣tion can lessen or alleviate it; and as miserable too in his fancied happiness, because at best 'tis very low and but half possessed; miserable in what he suffers now, but much more in what he expects hereafter: In a word, such a one is most miserable in his misery, and cannot at all be happy in his hap∣piness, because he imagines a time com∣ing, when he shall be neither miserable nor happy, but eternally nothing.

II. If this then be the condition of a meer natural Man; then certainly

that of a Christian is yet more misera∣ble, if his hope also be in this life only; Which is the second Observation. If we consider what God's Saints have in all ages endured, and must continually ex∣pect, we shall find that out of Hell none have suffered more. For proof hereof, I need send you but to 1 Cor. 4. or ra∣ther to the 11th to the Hebrews, where the bare recital St. Paul makes of their sufferings would fright us, nor can our ears well bear what they endured. If any misfortune befell the Roman State, then presently, Christiani ad Leones. If Israel be afflicted, then Elias must be the troubler of it. Man is born to trou∣bles as the sparks fly upward, says Job; but the good Christian is engag'd to more than the Man is born to. 'Tis that he must expect; if he be to receive a hundredfold in this time, 'tis with perfe∣cutions: He that will live godly must suffer them, says St. Paul, 2 Tim. 3. 12. And, In this world ye shall have trouble, says Christ, Joh. 16. 33. Such a man's profession is scandalous, and his example odious. For not being of the World, to be sure the World will hate him. Which as it is true of all good Christians, so

of Christ's Ministers especially. As they have a double portion of God's Spirit, so of afflictions. If others be chastned with Whips, then these with Scorpions. For besides their common profession, the nature of their office will expose them to troubles. They that convince the world of sin, shall stir up its malice; and while they defie the powers of darkness, inevitably procure their ha∣tred.

And here, for the better making good my assertion, that Christians of all other men are most miserable, I shall premise these two things. 1. That the stronger men's apprehensions are of evil, the quicker the sense of them. 2. That the higher their hopes, the greater their misery in the disappointment of those hopes. For,

First, The apprehension, if strong and active, ever gives an edge and sting to misery. The soundest body is most sen∣sible of pain; and the quickest reason of misfortune. Expectation and appre∣hension heighten Evils; the first anti∣cipates, and the second exasperates them. Now these two are highest in Christi∣ans. For whereas wicked Men, who

are so immers'd in the things of this life, that they scarce give themselves leisure to think of those of another, doe far less apprehend them: Christians who suffer their thoughts to dwell upon such unpleasing objects, are most sensible of them, and that wrath of God which may justly seize upon all offenders; and consequently they suffer these terrors with much more troubled minds. And without question the keenness of Christ's apprehension of what sin deserved was a high aggravation of what he suffered. In which respect Christians also are more unhappy than the most bruitish men, yea than the beasts that perish. For whereas these feel their misery when it comes, but doe not anticipate it; those shall doe what the Devils depre∣cated, continually torment themselves before the time, and but with imagi∣nary Evils, if there be no such thing as a Hell; Mortality and corruption would then make unreasonableness its self a priviledge, and the Atheist would in this life be far happier than the best Christian, and still happier than he is, if he could bring himself to have as lit∣tle

reason, as he has religion. There is no doubt, but that (supposing no other life) his enjoyments here would be so much the greater, as his fears were less. Thus the Hog makes good cheer in a tempest, while Men make vows and prayers; he is secure, while the Philo∣sopher looks pale and affrighted, and owes that tranquillity to his stupidity which the others Philosophy and Rea∣son shall but disturb. 'Tis certain that still as a man's apprehensions of another life have been less, his enjoyment of this has ever been more free and full. The Epicure who denied a God, or at least his Providence, did little trouble himself with his Anger; while he fan∣cied such a Deity as would not disturb men's pleasures, so he might peaceably enjoy his own; himself became as vo∣luptuous as that God he made, and so 'twas his whole business to create him∣self an imaginary Paradise, while he thought there was no real one. This made such persons give themselves over to all licentiousness; for their Prin∣ciples being loose, their Lives could not be strict; while their opinions were so low of the Soul, their care could not be

but great for their Bodies; The Immor∣tality of the Soul once denied, the con∣cerns for it could not be much, it be∣ing not probable that such men should please themselves with a pretence of vertue, who deny'd the future rewards of it. And from such premises that conclusion here mentioned by St. Paul could not but follow; Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we dye. It is but reasonable to imagine that they who thought they should dye like beasts, should live like them; husband that life the best they could, which should never return when once gone, and make it as pleasant as they saw 'twas short. Which, if there were no other life to come, was, no doubt, a rational course and the high∣est wisedom. And this supposed, The Children of this World must needs be wiser than the Children of Light; Martha's choice much better than Maries; That Cardinal who said he would not change his part in Paris for that in Paradise, appear as wise as we can imagine him Atheistical; and those men's profession, Malachi 3. That 'tis a vain thing to serve the Lord, and little profit to be found in keeping of his Ordinances, were to be lookt

upon as the highest reason; The true Christian should be of all other the most unprofitable servant; To be ver∣tuous and to be vitious would be all one, or rather, to be vertuous would be but a trouble and a check to us, nothing else but a subtle invention to debar our selves of the benefit of the good things of this world, when no better were to be expected.

2. The second thing I laid down in order to the proving the Christian more miserable than all other men, upon sup∣position of no future state, is this; That the higher men's hopes are, the greater their misery in their disappointment. If hope, but deferr'd, vexes the Soul; then hope, utterly frustrated, must needs confound it. Which is so true, that the higher we rise in our expectations, the greater must our fall be when we find them defeated. Now no profession bids higher than Christianity. It bids the poorest beggar look upon himself as a King, one born to a Throne, and by fil∣ling him with expectations of a Sceptre, which he shall never have, turns that Heaven he strongly fansies into a fool's Paradise. His fall from that place he

so eagerly aspires to, is like that of Lu∣cifer from that he was once possess'd of. He hopes to shine as a star in the firmament, when his glory must suf∣fer an eternal Eclipse. Thus does he please himself with an empty title, when he shall never enjoy the Inheri∣tance; and so in pursuance of a dream shall he lose the more solid comforts of this life, and let go a substance to catch at shadows of good things to come, if those good things be only in his Ima∣gination; if that death, which puts an end to his misery, shall add a greater one, by for ever depriving him of his fancy'd enjoyments.

I shall add this one Consideration more, that Christians, as they are more miserable than other men by their Pro∣fession; so do they make themselves yet more miserable by their severe Princi∣ples of Mortification and Self-denial, debarring themselves of those Comforts and Satisfactions which others freely enjoy. Thus shall the very Religion they profess persecute them more than another's rage and envy; and while the World shall deprive them of things con∣venient for this life, they shall do more,

of things necessary; That shall deny them things lawfull; They themselves things expedient too. If Providence has given them a plentifull fortune, their Religion shall forbid them the full and free use of it. They must be poor in spirit in the height of honours; low in their desires, though never so high in wealth and plenty; Thus in the midst of enjoyment do they scarce en∣joy; their Appetite must be curb'd in the opportunities of its utmost indulgence; and while good things are presented to their view, they must not reach out their hand to them, neither touch, taste nor handle, nor use the World, but as if they used it not. In which respect as they suffer more than others, so shall they enjoy less too, while they lose the good things here, and fail of those here∣after.

But here some may object; That al∣though there were no God nor life to come, yet there is so much satisfaction in living according to the rules of right reason and vertue, that even that con∣sideration should oblige men to doe so, and so make them most happy.

I confess that to live according to the rules of right reason is most agreeable to humane nature and conducing to hap∣piness in this life, and that they who keep closest to such rules, should have a considerable temporal advantage over those that break them. For sobriety, temperance, meekness, chastity and the like, do no doubt add as well to the pleasure as length of men's days, and therefore Christians, who best observe and practise those Vertues, must needs upon this account enjoy themselves most in this World, although they should fare no better than others in the next. But to this it may be reply'd; That besides that the use of Vertue should be very mean, if it should no otherwise make us happy than beasts are, who contenting themselves with what merely sufficeth nature, are more vigorous, and some of them longer liv'd than men; It may be questionable, whether a dry Platonical Idea of a Vertue perishing with our selves or a bare moral complacency in it, might in the balance of reason weigh down those other more sensual delights which gratifie our lower faculties, or a severe and morose Ver∣tue

have charms in it equal to all those various pleasures which sooth and flat∣ter our appetites; much more whether a calamitous one, such as that of a Chri∣stian usually is, a vertue still under a cloud, and ever as it were on the rack, persecuted, hated and afflicted here, and never to be considered hereafter. Far be it from me to decry moral Vertue, which even Heathens have granted to be a reward to it self, but surely in the supposed case of annihilation, very short of a full and complete one, and to cry it up, as some doe, to the weakning of our belief and hope of the Immortality of the Soul, however at first blush it may seem plausible, is in effect no better than a subtle invention to ruine Vertue by it self, since it cannot possi∣bly subsist but by the belief and support of another life. For setting this aside, what would Vertue be but a bare Noti∣on? what but a gaudy rattle to still and please Children? but of little force to persuade men to quit a present sensi∣ble delight for a bare Philosophical, though never so taking Speculation. Vertue may carry a big Title, she may appear the fairest thing of the world

and be the least usefull, while men ex∣pect no other advantage of their good actions but the content of having done them. 'Tis what she brings charms us more than her self, her beauty would have no attractive had she no dowry; she would soon be laid aside as the most unprofitable thing of the Earth, did she not give us assurance of some better re∣ward hereafter than what she now be∣stows. The joys vertuous actions af∣ford do so far affect us as they are an earnest of greater, and those satisfacti∣ons which spring from good deeds are so far to be prized as they promise and entitle us to higher ones. If we are plea∣sed in doing good here 'tis that we may hereafter find it, and if we sow in grace, 'tis because we hope one day to reap in glory. Vertue without Immor∣tality can never content us, and our longings after that are strong arguments of it; when we wish we prove it, and that we may attain it 'tis evident, be∣cause we so passionately desire it. O quàm vilis & contempta res est homo, nisi supra humana se erexerit, says the Mora∣list. That man is not so much as a man, that is not a great deal more than so,

that raises not himself above himself, that looks not beyond his threescore and ten years, nor above the ground he treads on. The vilest worm were hap∣pier than he, if his hopes were laid up where his body shall be. He has a Hea∣ven in prospect, and the expected joys of that quite swallow up his miseries on Earth. Now indeed is the time of his sowing, but not of his harvest; His work is here, but not his wages. His good Master that employs shall one day fully pay him, who gives him some of that pay in hand, but bids him look for more; and that blessed hope bears him up against all the discouragements of this life, sweetens his afflictions here, and makes him happy in his very unhappi∣ness, while he comfortably expects to be more happy than he can now fansie himself ever to be, because he is fully persuaded that there is another far bet∣ter and more glorious life in reversion, which brings in the third and last Ob∣servation.

III. That there is another Life remai∣ning, the Expectation whereof makes a

Christian of all other men most happy both here and hereafter.

This I am not now to prove to Chri∣stians, because it is a truth to be suppo∣sed by them, as it is in this Text by St. Paul. Christ has sufficiently demon∣strated it by his rising from the dead, and the force of our Apostle's argument here would be quite lost, if we should in the least doubt of it. And to speak clearly, This grand Article of the Chri∣stian Faith, The Resurrection, is a Truth to be taken for granted by all good Christians. Infidels may deny it, Athe∣ists may wish it were not, but all good Christians must confess and hope it. They have little reason to question that, which 'tis their highest interest should be. All their designs are laid in it and their hopes built upon it. If they be content to suffer here, 'tis in hope to reign hereafter. If with Christ they be willing to endure the cross and the shame of this life, 'tis for the joy that is set before them in the next. A joy which throughly apprehended cheers them up in their greatest dumps, enlightens their very dungeons, turns their prisons

into Palaces, their Hell into a Heaven, their torments into delights, and their beds of hot burning coals into those of down. It makes their afflictions infi∣nitely more pleasant than the Epicures most exquisite pleasures can be. A joy before which sorrow can no more stand than a mist before the Sun, that present∣ly chases away that evil Spirit of Me∣lancholy, which seizes the happy World∣ling in the midst of all his jollities, damps his spirits, makes his chaplets of Roses wither on his head, and is that stinking fly which spoils his most fra∣grant ointment, as oft as he shall seri∣ously consider, that he must one day become a part of his own lands, lye down for ever in the dust and his ho∣nour with him; which yet is the best he can expect. For such a one can no otherwise look upon Death than as a Serjeant to arrest him, whereas to the good Christian 'tis but a Messenger of joyfull tydings to tell him that his cor∣ruption must put on incorruption. This is his hope, and 'tis founded in Christ's Resurrection, who ever since he tasted death for us, hath sweetned that bitter Cup; so bitter before that time, that

St. Paul assures us, That through fear of death men were all their life-time subject to bondage. For it made their pleasures less delightfull, their vertues more harsh and tedious, and all their afflictions most insupportable. Whereas now they are so far from being insupportable, that they are most easie to us, who know, that being light, and but for a moment, they work for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory. How sad and deplorable then must their condition be who are without this hope, and without God in the world, as the Apostle describes Heathens to be; and yet how many Christians content themselves with no better, whose thoughts are bounded with the same objects their sight is, that of all the parcels of time regard but the present, and of all things but the face and appearance, men that only mind earthly things; of so low and base a spirit, that their Souls are but as salt to them, and of so brutish a temper, that such a Transmigration as Pythago∣ras fansied a punishment to bad men, would with them pass for a happiness, and, with the Devils, they would make it their desire that they might be suffe∣red

hereafter to enter into Hogs. Such men dare not openly deny an Immorta∣lity, and yet they will not believe it; or, if they do, 'tis so faintly, that their lives wholly confute their judgments. 'Tis strange to see how many there are that having nothing but frost in their veins and earth in their face, do yet so much doat on that life which they have now scarce any part in; whose faith reaches no farther than their senses, and yet scarce retain they those senses; whose frame should lift them up above the Earth, and their affections carry them wholly to it; They are unwilling to leave the World, though they see they cannot keep it; in their weak and en∣feebled bodies they carry strong desires to it, being dead to every thing but to the pleasures thereof, which yet they cannot now enjoy, because they cannot taste, and do then covet most when they are just leaving them: Than which as there cannot be a greater folly, so let us take heed how we imitate it, learn to look off from these temporal things which are seen, to those eternal which are not seen; get such a perspective of faith as may draw Heaven nearer to us,

shew us those glories which Christ has prepared for us and already taken pos∣session of in his own flesh, that so ours may rest in hope and one day inherit His kingdom. And now since Christ has given us an assurance of Immorta∣lity, let us endeavour to lay the founda∣tion of a happy one in this life, to work it out even in this world, this common shop of change, work it out of that in which it is not, out of riches by not trusting in and well using them, out of the pleasures of this world by loathing and forsaking them, out of the flesh by crucifying it with the lusts and affections thereof, and out of the world it self by overcoming it. Lastly, and above all, let us labour to secure this blessed Im∣mortality which lies before us by such good works as may follow us through the huge and unconceivable tract of Eternity. Else we may be so eternal as to wish we were mortal; wish against our interest, that in this life only we had hope; make our selves, who now fear death to dread immortality too, hope that there were no eternal joys, and tremble at the thoughts even of that everlasting bliss which our ill lives

should give us no just ground to hope for. But if while we enjoy this life we make lasting provisions for the next, by good works, then do we truly hope in Christ, and then the seeds of Vertue and Piety well cultivated here, shall hereafter yield us the happy fruits of a glorious Immortality; which he grant us who hath brought life and immortality to light through his Gospel, Jesus Christ in us, the hope of Glory; To whom with the Father, &c. Amen.

Soli Deo gloria in aeternum.

Notes

• Tusc. Qu. lib. 1.
• Reditur•• parcere vi∣tae. Lucan. of the Dru∣ids.
• Rev. 2. 23.
• 2 Tim. 1. 10.
• Zach. 9. 12
• Act. 23. 8.
• 2 Tim. 2. 18.
• Part. I.
• Job 3.
• Cic. Tusc. Qu. lib. 1.
• 2 Cor. 7. 31.
• Part. II.
• 1 King. 18. 17.
• Job 5. 7.
• Mar. 10. 30
• Ver. 32.
• Sen.
• Part. III.
• 2 Tim. 2. 12.
• Heb. 12. 2.
• Heb. 2. 9.
• Heb. 2. 15.
• 2 Cor. 4. 17.
• 2 Cor. 4. 18.
• 2 Tim. 1. 10. Col. 1. 27.