H 
 
 
 
«^~ HbnMWHB 
 
 $S&& '""lilt. 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 % 
 
 Shelf., 
 
 Division 
 
 Sc-C 
 
 Section .^T.%.v— «< 
 
 Number. 
 
 
»"1 
 
 $ 
 
 •' 
 
 * 
 
 B 
 
 »»3^ 
 
 *»*> 
 
 ^B 
 
 ••> ; *. 
 
 ' ' ^^tSP^^ 
 
 (I ' 
 
 % 
 
TIIK CUKAT ASSJZK 
 
 For Hi.- Iimmi j.. i -l.ill - i,l un.l Uif Dead shall be Knifrri 
 
THE 
 
 LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 OR 
 
 GRAND JUBILEE; 
 
 IN WHICH 
 WE SHALL BE FREED FROM ALL OUR MISERIES, AND HAVE PER- 
 PETUAL EASE AND HAPPINESS, OR ENDLESS 
 MISERY AND TORMENT, 
 
 AS 
 
 DELIVERED IN SIX DISCOURSES, 
 
 INCLUDING THE 
 
 Shepherd's Tent, or Fold for Christ s Sheep ; 
 
 BY / 
 
 SAMUEL^MITH, 
 
 Late Minister of the Gospel at Prittleioell, Essex. 
 
 A NEW EDITION, 
 
 To which is added, V 
 
 THE END OF TIME, 
 
 AND 
 
 Or, the LAST ENEMY CONQUERED, 
 
 AND 
 
 Separate Spirits made perfect ; 
 
 WITH AN ACCOUNT OK THE RICH VARIETY OF THEIR PLEASURES 
 AND EMPLOYMENTS, 
 
 By ISAAC WATTS, D. D. 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 THE TRIAL OF THE WITNESSES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, 
 By BISHOP SHERLOCK. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Published by Richard Evans, No. 17, Paternoster Row ; 
 J. Bourne, Grcenside Street, Edinburgh ; and may be 
 had of all Booksellers in the United Kingdom. 
 
 1B17. 
 
TO THE 
 
 CHRISTIAN READER, 
 
 GRACE AND PEACE FROM JESUS CHRIST 
 THE PRINCE OF PEACE. 
 
 COURTEOUS Reader, I present here unto thy view the 
 r ourth public fruit of my ministry ; wherein I have endeavoured 
 that those, especially of mine own hearers (those religious people 
 and Inhabitants of Prittleivell, in Essex, jyhom I love with my 
 heart) might a second time take notice of these my exercises, 
 that in public I delivered unto them. The night cometh ivhen no 
 man can work: Therefore it stands us all in hand, both minister 
 and people, to esteem time as the most precious thing in the 
 world, and the rather, because we know not how soon we shall 
 be called to an account of our work. Many have had (many 
 times) good purposes of heart to cleave unto the Lord, that have 
 been prevented by death, for want of timely repentance. It shall 
 then be our wisdom, to agree with our adversary while we are in 
 the way with him : for if we be but once arrested by death, we 
 shall be forced to pay the utmost farthiDg. Use this as a help 
 unto thee, to better thee in thy performance of that duty which 
 concerns thee so nearly. That thou mayest one day give an 
 account of thy works. If thou reap any benefit by it, give the 
 praise unto God, from whom every good and perfect work pro- 
 ceedeth : for God is a spirit, and they that worship him, must 
 worship him in spirit and in truth. And help me in thy prayers, 
 which I shall take as a full recompence of all my labours, and be 
 encouraged to spend some hours in the like duties, for thy good, 
 and in ths mean time remain, 
 
 Thine in the common Saviour, 
 
 SAMUEL SMITH. 
 
THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 OR 
 
 DAY OF JUBILEE. 
 
 HiS winged hosts, fly through all coasts, 
 
 Together gathering, 
 Both good and bad, both quick and dead 
 
 And all to judgment bring. 
 
 So that ev'ry one before the throne 
 Of Christ our Judge is brought : 
 
 Both righteous and impious, 
 That good or ill had wrought. 
 
 All these do stand at Christ's right hand 
 
 With pleasure and delight : 
 Clothed in bright, a glorious sight, 
 
 And shines day without night. 
 
 These blessed ones they sit on thrones 
 
 Judging the world with me : 
 Come and possess your happiness, 
 
 And bought felicity. 
 
 Henceforth no fears, no care nor tears, 
 
 No sin shall you annoy : 
 Nor any thing that grief doth bring, 
 
 Eternal rest and joy. 
 
 You bore the cross, and suffered loss 
 
 Of all for my name sake : 
 Receive the crown that's now your own 
 
 Come and a kingdom take. 
 
THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE. 
 
 DISCOURSE I. 
 
 Rev. xx. 11 — 15. 
 
 And I smo a great white throne, and him that sat on it; 
 from whose face the earth and the heavens fed away, and 
 there was found no place for them. And I saw the. dead 
 small and great stand before God, and tlie books were 
 opened; and another book was opened, which is the book 
 
 . of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which 
 were written on the books, according to their works. And 
 the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and 
 jfiell delivered up their dead which were in them : And they 
 were judged every man according to their works. And 
 death and hell were cast into the lake of fire ; this is the 
 second death. And whosoever was not found written in 
 the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire. 
 
 AVING lately expressed to you the mysteries 
 of Christ's incarnation, and taking our nature 
 upon him to redeem mankind from eternal miseries, 
 being his first coming in humility to us, to o filer us 
 salvation upon the terms of faith and repentance ; 
 it can be no less advantageous to you, that I put 
 you in mind of his second coming in glory to judge 
 the world, that those that will not be worked upon 
 by his coming in love and compassion, might be 
 
 / 
 
6 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 terrified and astonished by his coming to judge us, 
 when he shall pronounce that final judgment, Come 
 ye blessed into that eternal .happiness, prepared for you 
 from the beginning of the world: And go ye cursed 
 into everlasting torments, prepared for the devil and 
 his angels. Which judgment, although it is delayed 
 for a time, yet it will certainly come, as a thief in 
 the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a 
 great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
 heat, and the earth also, and the works that are there- 
 in, sltall be burnt up, 2 Pet. iii. 10. It is a fearful 
 thing to fall into the hands of the living God, who 
 will neither be bribed by monies or preferment. If 
 we do but fall into his hands in a fever in our bed, 
 or in a tempest at sea, or in a discontent at home : 
 But to fall into the hands of the living God, so that 
 that living God enters into judgment with us, and 
 passeth a final and irrevocable judgment upon us, 
 is a consternation of all our spirits, and examina- 
 tion of all our succours ; especially if we consider, 
 how that God with one word made all ; so with 
 another he can destroy all, As he spake, and it was 
 done, he commanded, and all stood fast , Psalm xxxiii. 
 0. so he can speak, and ail shall be undone, com- 
 mand, and all shall fall in pieces. 
 
 The Sum of Scripture. 
 
 To which end I have chosen this place of Scrip- 
 ture which so powerfully presses an awful dread 
 and fear on the minds of those who neglect to im 
 prove the precious moments of this life, and 
 
OR, GRAND JUBILEE. 7 
 
 away far from them this day of the Lord, saying, 
 Where are the signs of his coming ? For since the 
 fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were 
 from the beginning of the creation, 2 Pet. iii. 4. But 
 what then saith the apostle, was not the world that 
 then was, overflowed with water and perished ; and 
 if that were done in earnest, why do ye make a jes£ 
 of this ? That the heavens and the earth which are 
 now, are reserved unto fire against the day of judg- 
 ment. And St. Jude bids us, v. 17. Remember the 
 works ivhich were spoken before of the apostles of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, that there should be mockers 
 in the last time. Against whom Isaiah prophesieth, 
 Isa. lxvi. 1 5. That the Lord will come with fire, and 
 with his chariots, like a ivhirlwind, to render his anger 
 with fury : For by fire, and by his sword will the Lord 
 plead with all flesh. And the prophet Joel calls it, 
 A day of darkness and gloominess, and yet a fire 
 devouring before them, and a flame burnetii behind 
 them. Which is sufficient to make every man to 
 remember, who has any regard to his future hap- 
 piness, the words of the Holy Ghost written by St. 
 John in the first chapter of the Revelations, verse 7. 
 where he saith, Behold, he cometh tuith clouds and 
 every eye shall see him : And all the kindreds of the 
 earth shall tvail and lament, and weep and howl 
 because of him. 
 
 The five verses in the text contain in them a very 
 hvely description of our Saviour's second coming to 
 judgment ; which although he saw it only in a 
 vision, yet it is expressed with as much majesty as 
 words Pre capable to »*tter ; For words are not capa- 
 
THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 ble to express it with that glory, as when the Son of 
 Man shall sit attended with the heavenly host, having 
 his throne like a fier.y flame, and his wheels as burn- 
 ing fire, a fiery stream issuing from him. Dan. vii. 9, 
 
 The Parts of the Text. 
 
 This John, who wrote the book of the Revelations, 
 was the Evangelist, and the beloved disciple of 
 Christ, who followed him wheresoever he went, and 
 stoodjby him, not only when he was apprehended in 
 the garden, but went with him to the judgment-seat 
 of Pilate, and never denied him as Peter did, but 
 even attended him to his death on the cross, and 
 never left him till he had laid him in his sepulchre ; 
 and after for preaching the Gospel was banished by 
 Domitian, the Roman Emperor, to the desolate 
 island of Patmos : where this vision of the last day 
 was revealed to him, as a singular favour of heaven 
 He was one of the three disciples that always at- 
 tended his Lord and Master. He was with him at 
 the marriage of Cana in Galilee, and afterwards in 
 the garden, and before Pilate, and leaned upon his 
 breast at supper, where he asked him many ques- 
 tions ; and upon the cross of Christ commended 
 the care of his mother to him, saying, Behold tin/ 
 mother. 
 
 TJie Person of the Judge. 
 
 The person of the Judge is described in the first 
 verse of the text, full of majesty, power, and inte- 
 grity, severity and terror. And the persons who 
 
Oil, GRAND JUBILEE 9 
 
 are to appear before him to judgment, are, he tells 
 us, in the second verse, Both small and great, all 
 that ever were born, or shall be, to the end of the 
 world, rich and poor, high and low, all shall be 
 gathered together at the sound of the last trumpet 
 on this terrible day, to appear before the judgment- 
 seat of Christ, and our own consciences will be both . 
 jury and witnesses to acquit or condemn us : for 
 the holy scripture tells us, that the books shall be 
 opened, and that then God will judge every man 
 according to his works, our consciences giving 
 evidences either for or against us, by which we 
 must either stand or fall. 
 
 The Issue, of the Judgment. 
 
 Those whose names are written in the book of 
 life, shall be blessed and happy for ever ; but death, 
 hell, and Satan, and all ungodly persons, shall be 
 cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, there to re- 
 main with the apostate angels, who kept not the 
 first covenant, but fell, to endure eternal torments 
 for evermore, which is the second death. 
 
 And thus having told you the meaning of the 
 text, I shall, in the next place, proceed to speak to 
 the several points mentioned in the text, one by 
 one ; in order unto which, if you give good heed, 
 I hope God of his infinite mercy will soon open 
 your hearts, that you may so hear and understand 
 his will, as to escape the second death, and your 
 sinful souls may be saved in the day of our Lord 
 Jesus. 
 
 (O B 
 
10 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat o?i 
 it, from whose face the earth and heavens fled away, 
 and there was found no place for them. 
 
 I saw a great white throne, fyc. 
 
 St. John tells iu\ he saw a great white throne, a< 
 a place put in order for the accommodation of the 
 Judge, that sat on it, which he was commanded to 
 record in a book, that no one might plead ignorance, 
 but having a true sense of his coming, wc might take 
 care to work out our salvation with fear and tremb- 
 ling, and meet him in the clouds of heaven with joy 
 and not with grief: By which we might observe tin 
 inexpressible goodness of Christ to his church and. 
 people, that he reveals his second coming to St. 
 John, to the intent that none may be so ignorant of 
 it, but prepare to meet the Bridegroom with oil in 
 their lamps. 
 
 Knowledge oj the last Judgment necessary. 
 
 Christ's coming to judgment is nearer at hand 
 now than ever ; it was expected in the times of the 
 Patriarchs and Prophets, but then he had not^taken 
 our nature upon him, and paid the debt duetto h : - 
 Father by our fall and transgressions: But tl 
 being done, we have more reason to expect it nor. 
 than ever, when we are so divided among ourseh. 
 and such a rent is made in his seamless coat, by our 
 divisions and animosities. What can any Christian 
 or true believer expect, but that tho day oi the Lord 
 
OR, GRAND JUBILEE. 11 
 
 is at hand, when there are so many satires and libels 
 daily published against our holy religion, and men 
 are grown so audacious in contempt of authority, as 
 to deny the Lord that redeemed them. When the 
 holy Sabbath, which God by express commandment 
 lias set apart for serving him, is so much prophaned, 
 and instead of serving him in his churches, which 
 he has set apart to be worshipped in, men spend 
 the day in sports and pastimes ; which abominable 
 sin, all true Christians ought to beg of God to for- 
 give, for the sake of the few righteous that remain 
 amongst us, and have not yet bowed their heads 
 unto Baal. And what is the meaning of all this 
 wickedness in the land, but to put us in mind of the 
 last judgment, which none of usk know how soon it 
 may happen, for it will come upon us as a thief in 
 the night. And it may happen in the night of igno- 
 rance, or in the night of wantonness, or in the night 
 of sinful melancholy, and suspicion of his mercy, 
 or he may come in the night of so stupid, or so 
 raging a sickness, as we are not capable of receiving 
 him in the absolution of his minister, or in the 
 participation of his body and of his blood in the 
 Sacrament : Nay, he may come upon us in such a 
 night, as when all these nights of ignorance, of wan- 
 tonness, of desperation, of sickness, of stupidity, and 
 rage, may be upon us all at once. 
 
 There is not one truth in the whole Bible more 
 often urged than this of Christ's coming to judg- 
 ment, to awaken men. out of their deep security, 
 and make them mindful of that Majesty, before 
 whom all must one day appear to give up their ac~ 
 
12 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 counts. Enoch the seventh from Adam, as St. Jude 
 tells us, prophesied the Lord's coming to judgment, 
 to take vengeance on the wicked and disobedient, 
 which should be a terrible and awakening doctrine 
 to souls that are drowsy, and as it were, buried in 
 their sins, to consider they must one day give an 
 account of all their thoughts, words, and actions, 
 before the dreadful Majesty of Heaven. 
 
 How did this provoke St. Paul, when he preached 
 unio Felix the Governor, of temperance, righteous- 
 ness, and judgment to come, Acts xxiv. 25. so that 
 his very knees smote together, and he trembled. 
 And Habbakkuk, a prophet, and a very holy man, 
 when he heard of the last judgment, acknowledged 
 his fear, saying, my belly trembled, and my lips quiver- 
 ed at the voice, and rottenness entered into my bones. 
 And holy David, though a man after God's own 
 heart, and who upon all other occasions, had cou- 
 rage enough, was not ashamed to own, that his flesh 
 trembled for fear of God, and that he was afraid of 
 his judgments. Psalm cxix. 120. 
 
 And it is recorded of Noah, that when the Lord 
 had foretold him, that he would drown the world, 
 although there was an hundred and twenty years to 
 come, before it was to happen, that he was so moved 
 with that admonition, that he built the ark to save 
 himself and his family, from the destruction that 
 after fell upon all mankind bnt them. And as St. 
 Austin saith, every blow that was pvtn upon the ark 
 by Noah, was so many wahting pieces to the whole 
 world. 
 
 And now, my brethren, what doctrine can 'be 
 
OR, GRAND JUBILEE. 13 
 
 more, useful to the men of this untoward generation, 
 who are forgetful of every good duty, and more es- 
 pecially of the day of death and judgment, which 
 the want of the scriptures, make the ground of all 
 sin : For in the days of Noah, they did eat, they 
 drank, they were married and given in marriage, 
 they planted, they builded, never dreaming of the judg- , 
 ment that ivas so nigh at hand, until the day came 
 upon them, as a snare, being unmindful of the judg- 
 ment, not dreaming it was so nigh at hand. And so 
 it will be with many in these our days, who have no 
 regard to futurity until the day come upon them, 
 and it is too late for rocks and mountains to shelter 
 them from the fear of him that sits on the throne. 
 Which is further exemplified in*the parable of the 
 foolish virgins, who slumbered and slept, and took 
 not their oil of faith in their lamps, against the 
 coming of the bridegroom. As also of the evil ser- 
 vant in the gospel, who unconcernedly continued to 
 eat and drink, and beat his fellow-servants, never 
 dreaming of his master's returning so soon as he 
 did. 
 
 How should the consideration of these things 
 rouse up every Christian from the lethargy of sin, to 
 take care of ourselves in ti.me and not to be ruined 
 for ever ; for who that is loaded with a weight of 
 sin, can abide the coming of the Lord to judgment. 
 And yet all must appear before the judgment-seat 
 of Christ? There are no exceplions, both good and 
 bad, rich and poor, there is no sheltering-place for 
 any, which ought to beget in every one of us a reve- 
 rence of that Divine Majesty, who hath power to do 
 
U THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 with us as the potter doth with his clay, to mould us 
 to honour or dishonour. 
 
 There are two great things which are great hin- 
 drances to godly people, from too due preparation 
 for this day. 
 
 First, A careless neglect of religious duties, and 
 shifting them off to the last, flattering ourselves it is 
 time enough to begin to repent, and that the Master 
 will not come as yet, though it is written, the day 
 and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels in Hea- 
 ven* Who knows whether he shall live an hour, 
 seeing our life is in the hands of God, who can take 
 it from us in a moment; for as St. Austin saith, 
 The day of death is not known, and therefore every 
 day we must endeavour to repent, and prepare our- 
 selves for this sudden dissolution, which every man 
 is subject to by nature, although he continues in 
 erer so wicked a state of life. We are surrounded 
 with innumerable accidents, death meets us at every 
 corner, and is procured by every instrument of 
 violence ; only an excess of wine, or a debauch, or 
 by the stumbling at a stone, by the fall of a tile, or 
 by the violence of a beast, and by every tiring in 
 Providence. There is no state, no accident, no cir- 
 cumstance in life, but has been soured by some sad 
 accident of a dying friend. The son of Syrach 
 tells us, The bride went into her chamber, and knew 
 not ii'liat would bejal her there. A friendly meeting 
 often ends in a sorrowful parting ; nay, sometimes 
 makes an eternal parting. Many have died under 
 the hands of their paranymphs, or maids in dressing 
 a their nuptials, and their wedding-garments have ' 
 
OR, GRAND JUBILEE. 15 
 
 been laid aside, to put on a wedding-shroud : and 
 instead of a nuptial bed, they have laid down in the 
 silence of the grave. 
 
 And if so, how doth it behove every one to repent 
 in time, and prepare himself for the great and terri- 
 ble day of the Lord's coming to judgment ; for there • 
 is no repentance in the grave ; as the tree falls so it 
 lies. Let us remember the fool in the gospel, who 
 when he promised himself an' enlargement in his 
 barns, and bids his soul take its rest for so many 
 years, yet it was taken from him that very night. 
 And so it might be with every one, that promises to 
 himself a time beyond his power to command ; there- 
 fore whilst it is called to-day let us hear his voice, for 
 who can tell what a day may bring forth, iest the 
 night of death steal upon us, wherein no man can 
 work. 
 
 And therefore it is high time to hearken to the 
 word of God, whilst the gospel is preached unto us. 
 and while he knocketh at the door of our hearts, and * 
 would gladly enter in ; for he saith, If any man hear 
 my voice, and open the door, 1 11 in and gup 
 
 with him, and he with me. Wherein you see Christ 
 makes a proclamation of his love, to all that believe 
 in him, and therefore it behoves ail of us to make 
 use of this present time, while we have it, for fear it 
 should be too late, for time and tide will stay for none. 
 And therefore it is good, that in time we make our 
 calling and election sure, and labour with the apos- 
 tle, to work out our salvation with fear and trem- 
 bling, and not lie in security, and neglect our duty 
 to God, which is the first hindrance that we do not 
 
16 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 oftener meditate on the day of death and judgment, 
 for after death there is no repentance ; for who can 
 be such a fool to imagine, that God has leaden feet, 
 because he is slow in coming, but rather with the 
 wise virgins in the gospel, would not trim his lamp, 
 and put in oil, so that he may find us ready, and 
 prepared for his coming, and we are not cast out, 
 and thereby feel his iron hand. 
 
 Secondly, There is another hindrance that keeps 
 men from minding the judgment to come, which is 
 the cares of this life, and the enjoyments thereof, 
 which usually swallows them up in a continual 
 hurry of business, so that they think of nothing else, 
 and cannot spare even the Sabbath from looking 
 over their books of accounts, looking upon any ac- 
 count they must give of their word and actions at 
 the day of judgment, as an impertinent thing only to 
 frighten fools and children : Whereas did they but 
 consider that even this night their souls might be 
 taken from them, Luke xii. 19. and that they stand 
 continually tottering on the bank of the grave, they 
 would husband their time to a better end, and lay 
 up for themselves riches that can never fail them, 
 making their chief call to make their reckoning 
 straight, against the day of reckoning come, which 
 no man can tell how soon ; they would then part 
 with all the trifling vanities of this world, to secure 
 to themselves a pearl of inestimable price : For all 
 that we can value in this life, is a quiet mind, and a 
 good conscience. 
 
 The antient philosophers ever made it their study, 
 not to be over careful for the things of this world. 
 
OR, GRAND JUBILEE. 17 
 
 any more than what is necessary for the support of 
 life ; for here we are but as pilgrims, travelling 
 through a wilderness, to a. land flowing with milk 
 and honey, the heavenly Canaan, the New Jerusa- 
 lem, and should enjoy the things of this world, as 
 using them but not abusing them, having an eye to 
 the recompence of reward, where Christ sits at the 
 right hand of his Father on a white throne, judging 
 the twelve tribes of Israel. 
 
 God takes some out of the world, because it is not 
 worthy of them, and others he suffers not to live out 
 half their time, who are not worthy of the world, as 
 he did Ahab, Agag, and Herod, who being vile 
 monsters, did not live out half their days. And God 
 made haste to take away good"3osiah from the evil 
 to come, because his soul pleased him. And why, if 
 we consider, should God deal so graciously with us, 
 who have the gospel in its purity preached unto us, 
 and deal so severely with other nations, who wor- 
 ship him in superstition and idolatry, only that he 
 expects we should bring forth some fruits in our 
 lives, worthy of the goodness he has been pleased to 
 shew unto us ; which Jf we do not, then we must 
 expect the same measure to be meted to us, as he 
 hath done to others. 
 
 God punishes some in this life, which should be a 
 warning to us, to amend our lives ; others he lets 
 alone, as he did Pharaoh for a little time, and many 
 he reserves to the day of judgment, and therefore let 
 no man slumber in his security, though he has 
 strength, health, and riches, and all' that the world 
 can afford, but rather let him leave the world, and 
 
 (1.) c 
 
10 THJE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 apply himself to heaven ; as Sheba, the Queen of the 
 Soutli did, who left all, and came from the further 
 most part of the world, to hear the wisdom of Solo 
 moil ; which if we will not do, and hear the voice of 
 the turtle in these our days, we must expect with 
 Jews to be forsaken, and left as vagabonds 
 wandering- up and down upon the earth, or like 
 sheep having no shepherd, and at last have our 
 torments witn the wicked in hell fire ; so much for 
 security. 
 
 Doct. 1 . Christ's Throne described by two Properties. 
 
 2. Christ's coming with great glory. 
 
 The great throne shews the wonderful might, 
 majesty, and power of the Judge, and the while throne 
 shews the purity, integrity, and uprightness of the 
 Judge, and both demonstrate unto us the wonderful 
 majesty and power, in which the Lord Jesus shall 
 appear at the second time of his coming, which is 
 answerable in all points to what we find in the 
 twenty-fifth chapter of the apostle, viz. And then 
 we shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds. 
 with power and great glory, attended with Angels, 
 Patriarchs, Prophets, Martyrs, and all the Celestial 
 Choir, with joy to those that had done well, and 
 terror to the evil doers ; for now he shall come to be 
 glorified in his saints, and made marvellous in them 
 that believe, 2 Thess. i. 10. But the wicked shall 
 cry to the mountains to fall upon them and the hills to 
 cover them, and hide them from his presence, whom 
 they are not able to endure, Rev. vi. W. 
 
OR, GRAND JUBILEE. 19 
 
 For his herald, he will have an arch-angel sound- 
 ing the last trumpet, to proclaim his being on the 
 throne, in order to judge the quick and the dead, 
 when the grave, and hell, and the sea shall give up 
 their dead, and all shall come unto judgment, and 
 the heavens shall pass away with a noise, and the 
 elements melt with fervent heat. 
 
 And the use we ought to make of this, is seriously 
 to consider the difference between Christ's coming 
 in the flesh, and his second coming to judge those 
 that he died for : But for those that he finds unpro- 
 fitable servants, notwithstanding all this state and 
 glory, better it was for them that a millstone was 
 tied about their necks, and that they were drowned 
 eternally in the sea, than to hear that dreadful sen- 
 tence pronounced upon them, Go ye cursed into ever- 
 lusting torments, prepared for the devils, and those 
 that fear not God. 
 
 His first corning was in meekness, love, and humi- 
 lity, for he was laid in a manger between two beasts, 
 an ox and an ass, which a learned father of the church 
 said, is to be as it were, between a Jew and a Gen- 
 tile. And when he grew up, he declares, The foxes 
 have holes, and the birds have nests, but the Son of 
 Man hath not where to lay his head, in which words 
 he confesses himself to be the Son of Man, which 
 shews his meekness, in that he had no place where 
 ;o lay his head, and his love and humility are 
 abundantly expressed in his sufferings ; for he was 
 r.ounded for our transgressions, and the chastise- 
 ment of the Lord was upon him. 
 
20 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 How shall we dare make slight of so great a 
 mercy. The Jews thought once crucifying to be 
 enough, but we who stile ourselves Christians, by 
 our repeated sins of oaths and blasphemies, crucify 
 him afresh every day, trampling under foot the pre- 
 cious blood of the covenant that speaks better 
 things than that of Abel. And what can such 
 expect at his second coming, but fiery wrath and 
 indignation against all ungodly sinners. 
 
 Therefore let every one of us have a care to do 
 well, and say with holy David, Create in me, O God, 
 a [clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me, 
 Psal. li. 10. For if we are willing, he is able to 
 draw us out of the sink of sin, and make us lie 
 down in safety, so that we shall appear blameless 
 and spotless before God ; clothed with the robes of 
 Christ's righteousness, which he will be well-pleased 
 with ; for he delights not in the death of a sinner, but 
 desires that he be converted and live. And to this 
 end, he sent his only-begotten Son to take our na- 
 ture upon him, and to die for us, that we might not 
 die eternally ; who is become the mediator between 
 God and man, making a reconciliation for us, who 
 had broken the first covenant. As Moses and Aaron 
 pleaded for the children of Israel unto God, and 
 desired rather to be blotted out of the book of life, 
 than that they should perish. And as Moses led 
 them through the Red Sea unto Canaan, so doth 
 Christ lead us even to the heavenly Canaan, the 
 New Jerusalem, shining with the brightness of God's 
 presence, where is fulness of joy for evermore. 
 Which I mention only to shew you the great love 
 
OR, GRAND JUBILEE. 21 
 
 which our blessed Saviour had for mankind, when 
 he first came in the flesh : For he so loved us that 
 he laid down his life for our sakes, and shall we be 
 so ungrateful as to spit in his face, and trample 
 under feet this his kindness, in not returning thanks, 
 and neglecting to love him again ? St. Ambrose 
 calls ingratitude the devil's spunge, wherewith he 
 wipes out Gods love and mercy. But I hope no 
 one who has been baptized uuder Christ's banner 
 will ever be ungrateful, even in his thoughts. For 
 Christ cometh with ten thousands of his saints and 
 angels to execute judgment upon all, as David saith 
 in the Iviith. Psalm, The Lord cometh to judge the 
 world. And St. John in the ninth chapter saith, 
 The Father jud get h no man, but Tias committed all 
 judgment to his Son, who is the second person in 
 the Holy Trinity, although] they all agree in th« 
 same condemnation. 
 
 Let no man then despair of mercy, though his 
 sins be as red as scarlet, yet he will make them as 
 white as snoiv, if we amend our wicked lives, ami 
 come into his terms as they are set forth in the 
 Gospel, which are very easy, For his yoke is easy 
 and his burden is light ; for to this end he lias taken 
 our nature upon him, which he has exalted above 
 the heavens, and has seated it in the glory of bis 
 Father. And as we have no reason to doubt of 
 this his Communion with us in nature, so we ought 
 not to doubt of our participation of his grace m 
 this world, and glory hereafter ; for he cannot foig&t 
 us, if we do not forget ourselves ; which if we do, 
 he greater will be our condemnation, when the 
 
22 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 Lord cometh to judge the world in righteousness and 
 truth : For as lie is merciful in giving us time to 
 repent, so he will take vengeance on those who 
 abuse his patience and long-suffering. 
 
 But to come close to the text, this should astonish 
 all hard-hearted sinners, who despise Christ and his 
 Ministers, who will at last manifest his power in 
 their condemnation : for such as will hear the voice 
 of his word, by his Ministers, shall hear the terri- 
 tye voice of 'him, when he shall sit in judgment, and 
 bid him go into everlasting burnings. 
 ! Since the person of the Judge is of such endless 
 power and glory, of such wonderful might and 
 Majesty, it should humble all men when they come 
 into his presence, as they do who come to hear the 
 Word preached, or to receive the Sacraments ; for 
 when the word is preached, God speaks to us, and 
 when we pray, we speak to God : And if so, how 
 dare any man sleep in his presence, or use any un- 
 seemly gesture. If they were to come into the pre- 
 sence of the king, how careful would such be, 
 not to offend, and to pull off their hats, and shew all 
 tokens of reverence ? but to see many come into 
 the presence of the King of kings, and Lord of 
 lords, with all the negligence and disrespect ima- 
 ginable, is a thing no less frightful, than to be 
 abhorred by all good Christians ; even at theii 
 prayers, or singing of psalms, how slovenly do some 
 men perform these duties, who if they were to be 
 before a prince or great man, would not only stand 
 up, but bow and cringe like sycophants ? which 
 indecent custom certainly ought to be avoided more 
 
OR, GRAND JUBILEE. 23 
 
 in the presence of God, when we are praying to 
 him, or when he speaks to us by his word preached. 
 
 But to sum up all, Christ saith, John xiv. 3. \f 
 1 go and prepare a place for you, I will come again 
 and receive you unto myself, that where 1 am, ye 
 might be also. Which words are a great comfort 
 and consolation to godly persons, that they shall 
 be where Christ the Son of God is, which gives 
 full assurance that they shall participate of the same 
 glory with Christ their head, for he shall say unto 
 them, Come ye blessed. They shall both with body 
 and soul receive a glorious kingdom, and a beau- 
 tiful crown from the hands of the Lord, which he 
 has purchased for them, who with his own right 
 hand shall cover them, and with his* arm will protect 
 them. 
 
 Christ intends it as a favour, when he saith in the 
 xxii. of the revelations, Behold I come quickly, 
 It is one favour thai he will come, seconded with 
 another that he will come quickly ; and to esta- 
 blish us in that assurance, he adds, Behold 1 come 
 quickly, and my reward is with me, which one 
 would think should work in every man a desire of 
 that day : I am sure it must in all persons that live a 
 holy and godly life. There are scarce any among' 
 us, but expects his coming : but that crown which 
 the apostle speaks of, 2 Tim. vi. 8. is laid up for 
 them that love the appearing of the Lord, and not 
 only expect it, but love it. And no man can do so, 
 that has not a confidence in his cause. No prisoner 
 longs for the sessions, no client longs for the day of 
 hearing, unless he knew his cause to be gQO& »and 
 
24 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 he shall stand upright in judgment. The souls ot 
 the martyrs under the altar in heaven, cry unto 
 God, Rev. vi. 9. How long, O Lord, holy and 
 true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood, 
 which, although it is not granted, but the day of 
 judgment is put off, yet God was not displeased 
 with them, but gave them white robes as tokens of 
 innocency. 
 
 White Throne. Doct. 3. The Integrity of Christ 's 
 * Judgment. 
 
 This throne of Jesus Christ : is called a white 
 throne, because it betokeneth purity, beauty, and 
 integrity, and shews that Christ the Judge of the 
 world, will judge all persons justly, as our con- 
 sciences shall either testify for or against us ; for 
 he fears no man's person be he ever so great, he 
 will not like earthly Judges be moved with favour, 
 nor frighted with big words, nor will he admit of 
 any pleading of lawyers in a bad cause for fees, 
 but every man shall be judged according to his 
 works ; the upright man shall enter into life, and 
 eternal joy and happiness, and the murderer and 
 hard-hearted sinners, shall be cast into the lake of 
 fire, which is the second death. The Apostle Paul 
 saith, We know that the judgment of God is accord- 
 ing to truth, Rom. ii. 2. when every secret thing 
 (as Solomon saith,) Eccles. xii. 14. shall be brought 
 to judgment, and when he shall lighten all things that 
 are hid in darkness, and make the counsel of their 
 hearts manifest. Then woe unto them, whose sins 
 shall not only be laid open to the face of the Judge, 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 25 
 
 but exposed to all the host of heaven. What shame 
 and confusion of face must this cause, to those who 
 could cover their sins in this world with bribery 
 and corruptions, when they must appear unveiled, 
 and stand the terrible sentence of God, Go, ye cursed, 
 Sfc. and find the words of Solomon too sadly true, 
 Prov. xi. 18. Tke wicked make a deceitful work. 
 
 Use 1. This is a great comfort to those who have 
 been wronged and abused by unrighteous judges in 
 this world, when they shall find themselves to be 
 righted by him that judgeth righteously : and he has 
 pity upon the poor and fatherless ; when such as 
 have been persecutors of his poor members, shall feel 
 the smart of it ; as Dives was when Lazarus was 
 received into Abraham's bosom. ^What a comfort, 
 I say, will it be to the poor oppressed suitor to have 
 the Judge say, Well done thou good and faithful 
 servant, come cuter into thy Master s joy. 
 
 Use 2. This should make the godly to bear all 
 their sufferings with ' patience, for the Lord saith, 
 Vengeance is mine, and I will repay it. And St. 
 James saith, Be ye also patient, and settle your 
 hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth near. 
 ; Use 3. This confirms the truth of Solomon's 
 words, Prov. xi. 18. The wicked worketh a deceit- 
 ful work, to persuade themselves that they may sow 
 iniquity, and yet expect to reap happiness : whereas 
 the word of the apostle, Gal. vi. 8. is grounded 
 upon truth, He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the 
 flesh reap corruption: but he that soweth to the 
 spirit, shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. And 
 
 (2.) d 
 
26 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 Hebrews xii. 18. the same apostle saith, Without 
 holiness, no man shall see God. 
 
 Use 4. Seeing Christ comes with majesty, not 
 as a Mediator, bnt as a Judge: this should admo- 
 nish us to repent, and seek the Lord while he may be 
 found, and so call upon him ivhile he is near, Isa. Iv. 
 6. In this world Christ came to us by his ministers 
 in mercy to invite us to repentance, but in the world 
 to come he will not come as Mediator, but as a 
 Judge full of power and glory ; so that you see, if 
 w^e die in our sins, there is no hopes of mercy after 
 our death, for as death leaves thee, so shall judgment 
 find thee. Therefore it highly concerns every man 
 to put on the white pobe, the garment of righteous- 
 ness while it is day, lest darkness come upon him 
 unawares, and it is too late to get oil, and light his 
 lamp to attend the bridegroom. 
 
 And one sitting thereon. 
 The person of the Judge described. 
 
 I come now to speak more particularly of the 
 Judge, whom St. John fully describes, Rev. xiv. 14. 
 / saw a white cloud, and one sitting on it like the 
 Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and 
 in his hand a sharp sickle. 
 
 Doct. 4. Christ the Judge at the last day. 
 
 Christ has a right to be Judge in several respects ; 
 as first, being Redeemer of the world ; and secondly, 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 27 
 
 in regard to his church, of which he is the head ; and 
 thirdly, as a Priest, and Prophet, as well as a King, 
 a true High Priest, who offers up himself once for 
 all, for the sins oj the whole world, a true Prophet in 
 whom was contained all the council of God, and as 
 a King, when he comes to sit on his throne, to judge 
 the quick and the dead, John i. 22. The Father 
 judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to 
 the Son. And though it is said, 1 Cor. vi. 2. that 
 the saints shall judge the world, the apostle only 
 means, that they shall appear, applaud, and approve 
 the righteous judgment of Christ, triumphing that his 
 and their enemies are put under his feet, and that all 
 power is given in heaven and in earth to him. 
 
 When Christ Jesus lived on earth he came in misery, 
 very poor and meek, so that every sinful wretch durst 
 mock him, and spit in his face ; — Herod, Pontius 
 Pilate, Caiaphas, and all the Jews used him at their 
 pleasure : but at his coming to judgment he shall 
 come as a King, guarded and attended with many 
 thousands of heavenly saints and angels, when all his 
 enemies shall tremble and quake, Zech. xii. 10. as 
 they did, when they cried, Aivay with him, away 
 with him, Crucify him, crucify him, may his blood 
 light upon us and our children ; which it has suffi- 
 ciently done, for they are as vagabonds on the face 
 of the earth to this clay. 
 
 This should administer comfort to those who have 
 led godly lives, that one who is thoroughly acquainted 
 with our sufferings, is now to judge us in truth and 
 uprightness, so that none but those who have wounded 
 him by their wilful sinning against the light of grace 
 
 d 2 
 
 
28 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 need be afraid of this judgment. "Which made holy 
 Job take heart in the midst of all his miseries and 
 say, I know that my Redeemer liveth; the consider- 
 ation of which should be a terror to all wicked sin- 
 ners that live in sin, to think of his coming in glory, 
 whom they have despitefully used, and whose gospel 
 they have trodden under foot, For he shall come with 
 a sharp two-edged sword to cut in pieces, and a con- 
 suming fire to burn up all the ungodly sinners, Heb. 
 xii. 29. which is enough to strike into the hearts of 
 ail wicked men, when They shall see him whom they 
 have pierced, as the prophet saith. 
 
 Let every man consider this betimes, for as a 
 snare this day shall come on us unawares, for why 
 should any treasure up wrath against the day of 
 wrath. Christ is to be the Judge of the world, 
 which as it may add terror to the wicked, and those 
 that go on in a course of sin, so it administers com- 
 fort to those that lead godly lives : since one who 
 is thoroughly acquainted with our sorrows, is to 
 judge us in truth and uprightness. Most think it 
 will go hard with Cain, Pharaoh, Pilate, and Judas 
 in that day, and why not with them, if they resist 
 the grace that is now offered to them in the gospel : 
 for be assured, if we draw our love and obedience 
 from God, he will withdraw his blessing from us. 
 
 From whose Face fled. 
 Severity of the Judge described. 
 
 From whose face fled away both the earth and the 
 heavens, and their place teas ?w more found. And 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 29 
 
 in another place we read, that The heavens are not 
 pure in his sight, how much more is the earth pol- 
 luted by the sins of men, for whose sake it was 
 cursed of God, upon the first transjajession of man 
 in Paradise, which shews the wonderful severity of 
 the Great Judge of heaven and ea th, at whom we 
 cannot wonder that they should fly, because he 
 is purity itself, and cannot delight in any impure 
 thing. But this mentioned the rather, to express 
 the seventy of the Judge, than that things insensible 
 can have any reason to fear. For when God de- 
 scended on Mount Sinai to give the law, we read 
 the mountains quaked and trembled exceedingly ; 
 and in other places how the rocks rent before him 
 as lie passed by, and the hills w^re moved at his 
 presence. And at his dying on the cross, how the 
 foundations of the earth shook, and the rooks rent, 
 and tore the veil of the temple, and the light of 
 the sun was darkened, and the saints arose from 
 their graves. And what then must happen, when he 
 appears in all power and glory ? Certainly then it 
 is no wonder, if the affrighted elements then fly, 
 and give place to the terror of his judgment, since 
 the Son of man has scattered an infection over the 
 whole creation. 
 
 We are afraid of the plague, because it infects 
 mens bodies, but the plague of sin is a thousand 
 times more to be abhorred, for it infects both 
 body and soul. The remembrance of which should 
 make us be wary, how we mis pen d our time, the 
 thoughts of which kept holy David in such awe, 
 that he repented him of the evil, and the Lord 
 
30 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 forgave him, I have feared thy judgments, thy judg- 
 ments were always in my sight. It is a fearful thing 
 to fall into the hands of the living God, yet if we 
 repent, he will forgive, for he doth not willingly 
 afflict the children of men. The Ninevites expe- 
 rienced his mercy, in the warning he gave them 
 by Jonah ; and it were to be wished that we were 
 like them, and would repent, and not deny Christ 
 entrance, when he stands at the gate of our hearts 
 and knocks. 
 
 ^Observe, Seeing both heaven and earth shall fly 
 from the presence of Jesus Christ, we ought not to 
 dream away our lives, but repent before it is too 
 late : for, Unless ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. 
 For the Psalmist saith, A j> re shall devour before 
 him, and a mighty tempest shall be moved round 
 about him, Ps. xi. 2. yet so merciful is he that he 
 gives warning before he strikes. 
 
 2dlv, Seeing that heaven and earth shall fly at his 
 presence, who have not sinned, what shall wicked 
 and hard hearted sinners do ? Where shall blas- 
 phemers and adulterers go, when the Judge is their 
 enemy ? The scripture in diverse places declare 
 the severity of the Judge, 2 Thess. i. 8. He shall 
 come in a flame of Jire rendering vengeance. And, 
 Many of them which sleep in the dust of the earth 
 shall awake, Src. some to shame, and tribulation, 
 anguish and sorrrow, shall be upon every one that 
 doth evil, Rom. ii. 9. And the companions the 
 wicked shall have in the other world are Even the 
 devil and his angels, fyc. Matt. xxv. 41. 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 31 
 
 Ver. 1 1 . And J saw the dead both great and smalt. 
 
 I have already described the person of the Judge, 
 by his wonderful majesty and power, I come now 
 to shew you who they are that shall appear before 
 this great Judge ; who are not those alone that 
 shall be found actually dead, and raised at that day, 
 but even the living that then shall be found ; for 
 Jesus Christ shall judge both the quick and the 
 dead, as St. Paul saith, We shall not die, but be 
 exchanged : for if the dead who have been rotten 
 many thousand years, shall appear and stand be- 
 fore God, much more they which be living, when 
 Christ shall come to judgment. So then it is plain, 
 although St. John in the text speaks only of the 
 dead, yet all, both quick and dead, shall appear and 
 stand before his throne. 
 
 I saw the dead, <§~c. 
 
 Doct. 5. Men shall be raised out of the dust at last. 
 
 The Lord killeth (saith Hannah in her song,) and 
 maketh alive, bringeth down to the grave, and raiseth 
 up, 1 Sam. ii. 6. 1 am sure, saith Job, that my 
 Redeemer liveth, and that I shall stand the last day 
 on the earth ; and though worms destroy my body, 
 yet I shall see God in my flesh. We must not think, 
 that our long lying in the grave, can hide :is from 
 the general resurrection. It is not the stubble shall 
 hide Saul, nor the ground Achan's sin, Cain shall 
 
3-2 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 rise with Abel, Herod with John the Baptist, Felix 
 with Paul, Moses and Pharaoh. 
 
 Then will it be the time that conscience will 
 accuse such as refused to hearken to h£r dictates ; 
 the Gentiles shall rise up against the Jews, and the 
 heavens and the earth, and the works that are 
 therein shall witness against us, and we shall weep 
 aud howl, and would give all that ever we were 
 worth in the world, for one hour's time to repent, 
 and make our reconciliation with God, whom we 
 hare afore neglected. 
 
 The doctrine of the resurrection is so fully made 
 out both in the Old and New Testament, that all 
 must acknowledge it, and believe it shall be as God 
 hath appointed it at the last day. 
 
 The prophet Daniel saith, That they that sleep 
 in the dust shall awake, some to everlasting Uje, and 
 some to everlasting shame, Dan. xii. 2. And St. 
 John saith, The time shall come in which all' that 
 are in the graves shall hear his voice, and they shall 
 come forth ; and they that have done good, shall go 
 unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done 
 evil unto the resurrection of condemnation, John v. 
 28. Which is confirmed by St. Paul, in 1 Cor. 
 xv. 51. Behold 1 shew you a mystery, ice shall not 
 all sleep, but that we shall be changed, and that in 
 the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the last 
 trumpet ; for as by sin came death, so by death came 
 life. And thereunto St. Austin saith, He that 
 liveth well, cannot be afraid to die, nor doubtful of 
 his resurrection. And in short we all confess the 
 resurrection of the dead, as one of the most prill- 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 33 
 
 cipal articles of our faith ; and that the godly and 
 wicked shall both arise, but with this difference, 
 the one shall rise to life eternal, and the other to 
 eternal destruction, which to them cannot be cal- 
 led a resurrection, any more than taking of a ma- 
 lefactor out of prison to be executed, can be called 
 a delivery: but it shall be with them, as with 
 Pharaoh's servants, both were taken out of prison, 
 the one to be restored to his office, and the other 
 to be executed. 
 
 What manner of persons ought we then to be 
 in all holy conversation, exhorting one another to 
 repentance ? Both poor and rich, minister and peo- 
 ple, that by the grace of God we may be enabled to 
 lead a new life ; and with St. Paul be careful to 
 keep a conscience void of offence, "both towards God 
 and toivards man, 2 Cor. i. 
 
 Use. ]. It is a great joy to the godly, that they 
 shall rise again, and a terror to the wicked, because 
 they shall be punished ; and well were it for them, 
 if their souls were as the souls of beasts, and should 
 never rise ; and therefore St. John saith, He saiv 
 the dead both small and great stand before God, all 
 must rise to honour or dishonour, to salvation or 
 damnation. 
 
 Use 2. In this day, both great and small, high 
 and low, rich and poor, shall appear ; and the only 
 difference will be, the concern to be weighed in 
 the balance, whether they have been good or evil ; 
 if they are found weight in the scale of Justice, 
 they shall ascend in triumph with their Redeemer 
 to sing hallelujahs world without end : But if 
 wanting, they shall descend into the dismal regions 
 of darkness, Where shall be weeping and gnashing of 
 (20 E 
 
THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 teeth, and that for ever and ever to all eternity. As 
 the thoughts of which should be a terror to all un- 
 godly people, so it should be a matter of comfort 
 to all poor members of Christ Jesus. In this life, 
 the godly undergo many miseries ; as holy Job, who 
 said to corruption, Thou art my mother, and to the 
 worm, Thou art my sister and brother ; and yet St. 
 Ambrose saith, He had within him a soid full oj 
 siveet ointment, which was full of sweet savour in 
 the nostrils of God. 
 
 %Use. 3. By all which you see our bodies shall 
 arise, not weak and lame, but sound and glorious 
 bodies, having no pain or grief as St. Matt, saith, 
 xxvii. 52. And the graves were opened, and many oj 
 the saints bodies' that slept arose, and came out of the 
 graves after the resurrection, and went into the holy 
 city of Jerusalem. But as for the ungodly, it is 
 not so with them, they shall arise, but only to go 
 into eternal torments, even hell tire. Which it were 
 to be wished, all men of any degree would consider, 
 while it is yet day, before darkness come upon them, 
 and it is too late to repent, and turn unto the Lord 
 our God. 
 
THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE. 
 
 DISCOURSE II. 
 
 Rev. xx. 12, &c. 
 
 12. And I saw the dead both small and great, stand before 
 God, and the books were opened, which is the Book of 
 Life : And the dead were judged out of those things 
 which were written in the books according to their 
 deeds. 
 
 Jf HAVE already described With what majesty 
 «k and glory, the Judge shall come to the comfort 
 of the godly, and amazement, of the wicked, and 
 who they are that must appear, both small and 
 great. All must arise in their native strength and 
 beauty, as Adam was created at, which was a 
 perfect man, about thirty years old, or at the age 
 of our Saviour, when he died upon the cross, which 
 was about thirty-three years of age ; for it cannot 
 be imagined, that infants dying in their minority 
 shall so rise, or that aged and decrepid persons 
 shall rise in their imbecility, who must be enabled 
 to undergo the eternity of happiness or misery, 
 which all authors agree shall be over the valley 
 of Jehosaphat, by mount Olivet, which is near 
 unto Jerusalem, eastward from the Temple. And 
 as cosmographers describe it to be in the midst 
 of the earth, which is very probable for four 
 reasons : ....... 
 
36 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE/ 
 
 First, The scripture saith, 1 will gather together 
 all nations into the valley of Jehosaphat, and plead 
 with them there, Joel iii. 1, 2. Cause the mighty 
 One to come down, O Lord, let the heathen be awaked, 
 and come up to the valley of Jehosaphat, for there 
 will I sit, and judge all the heathen round about, 
 Joel iii. 11, 12. 
 
 Secondly, Because our Saviour was there cruci- 
 fied : so over this place his throne shall be erected, 
 when he sits in judgment, to manifest his power and 
 glory : as also near unto this valley was mount 
 Moriah, where Abraham would have sacrificed his 
 son Isaac, Gen xxii. And here Jacob saw the an- 
 gels ascending and descending on a ladder, Gen. 
 xxxii. And the angel put up his sword, and fire from 
 heaven burnt the sacrifice in Araunah's floor, 2 Sam. 
 xiv. And' here Solomon built the temple, 2 Chron. 
 iii. 1. Likewise in this place Christ preached the 
 gospel, and suffered before he entered into glory. 
 
 Thirdly, It is very probable that the place where 
 the angels shall be sent to gather together all the 
 elect, from one end of the heavens to the other, is 
 to be near to Jerusalem in the valley of Jehosaphat 
 over the Amorites, Moabites, and those of mount 
 Seir, which is a type of that final victory, which 
 Christ shall give his elect over all their enemies. 
 
 Fourthly, Because the angels told the disciples, 
 that as they saw Christ ascend from mount Olives, 
 which is over the valley of Jehosaphat, so in like 
 ma mer he should come down from heaven en 
 throned amidst the cherubims, attended with ten 
 thousand times ten thousand saints and angels, who 
 shall gather us from all nations even from the four 
 winds of heaven. 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 37 
 
 Books, what is meant by them, every mans conscience. 
 
 Thy conscience is the book that shall be opened, 
 and that shall be as good as ten thousand witnesses, 
 either to excuse or accuse thee before God ; for as 
 God hath his book of infinite knowledge, whereby 
 he knows the very secrets of all hearts, so likewise 
 he has given to every man and woman a book, which 
 is their own conscience, wherein are written all our 
 thoughts, words, and actions. 
 
 t Holy David acknowledged this, when he said, 
 Thou, O Lord, knotvest the thoughts of my heart long 
 before I utter them. And with this book of the 
 law given to man as a rule and guide to walk by, 
 which is called a book of remembrance, by which 
 all our actions must be tried and examined. And 
 then the book of our own conscience shall be opened, 
 which is now so closed up in our breasts, that no 
 eye on earth but our own knows and perceives ; 
 and when these books are opened and strictly com- 
 pared, we shall find our sins do agree in every tittle. 
 And then follows the book of judgment, which the 
 comfortable or terrible sentence will be pronounced 
 by. And after the book of life, in which all our 
 names are enclosed, in which all their names are 
 written that shall be pronounced good and faithful 
 servants, which cannot be changed or defaced by 
 time ; and this was the book which Moses's zeal did 
 desire, that his name might be blotted out, rather 
 than his Master's name should be blasphemed. 
 
 Thus kind is God to us, and careful of us, that 
 he keeps every thing so just, that no wrong can be 
 done us, for we have all the privilege imaginable to 
 
38 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 do ourselves justice. First, The book of the law. 
 shewing' us what we should do, and then the book 
 of our own conscience, shewing us what we have 
 done : against the first of these, no man or woman 
 can except ; for as David saith, The commandments 
 of the Lord are pure, and righteous altogether, Psal. 
 xvi. And for the second, it beinsr alwavs in our 
 own keeping, who can say against that, seeing lUe 
 Lord will then judge a man, not by another mans 
 conscience, but by his own, wherein nothing ran 
 hgppen, but what we must be knowing of ourselves. 
 
 Doct. 1. All our thoughts, ivords, and ivories must 
 come to judgment. 
 
 I come now to the doctrinal part of the iext, to 
 shew that all our thoughts, words, and actions must 
 come to judgment ; for every man's book shall be 
 opened, in which are set down even the thoughts of 
 our hearts : there is none so secret or so close, but 
 it is recorded in this book of conscience, as is also 
 every idle word that we speak, and act that we do, 
 though never so closely done. 
 
 As Job on this account saith, Thou hast sealed 
 up all our sins in a bag, which plainly demonstrates 
 a kind of keeping them against the day of accounts, 
 even all the sins that we now make so light of, 
 either in thought, word, or action, will be produced 
 against us so plainly, that none dare deny the 
 accusation, because our consciences will come in 
 evidence against us. 
 
 How many wicked and vile thoughts have a 
 wicked man and an unchaste woman in their minds 
 night and day, which arc all written in this book 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 30 
 
 of conscience. Which made holy David look upon 
 it as a great mercy, that God had given him a sight 
 of his sins, Thou hast set my misdeeds before me, saith 
 he, and my secret sins in the sight of thy countenance, 
 which is what every one of us should do, who have 
 put far away from us the evil day ; but know ye, 
 the account of them will not be so passed over, when 
 the secrets of all hearts shall be laid open, and what 
 ever has been done in secret shall be published on 
 the house-top and come to light. Which if we did 
 but consider, how watchful should we be over om 
 hearts and lips, that we offend not in thought 01 
 word, much more in deed. How many sins that 
 pass by unregarded, would then be taken notice of, 
 and more care would be taken to avoid them, lest 
 they rise up against us at the great and terrible day 
 of the Lord's coming to judge the world. 
 
 Secondly, Our speeches are noted in this book as 
 well as our thoughts, and yet what a number of 
 profane words pass out of the mouths of ungodly 
 men and women, what horrible and blasphemous 
 oaths ! What cursed speaking, lying, and slander- 
 ing ! all of which are written in this book, which 
 when it is opened, it will discover all, n®t only our 
 filthy thoughts, but every wicked word 
 I Our Saviour tells us, Matt. xii. 35, That we must 
 give an account of every idle word at the day of 
 judgment, which although men strive to forget, yet 
 they are written in their consciences, and one day 
 must come to judgment, and then give an account 
 of all our actions, whether they have been good or 
 bad, all must appear, 2 Cor. v. 20. and give an ac- 
 count to this Judge. 
 
 And if so, what manner of men ought we to be 
 
40 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 in holiness and righteousness of life ; for conscience 
 is so tender, that if it be pricked by sin, it will 
 be blemished and wounded, and therefore we ought 
 to take care that sin gets no entrance into our hearts, 
 lest it make havock of our souls. And in this case, 
 Solomon gives us a very necessary caution, when he 
 saith, Counter guard thy heart, and watch over thy 
 soul, Prov. iv. 4. that thou do not any thing thai 
 may wound thy conscience. 
 
 Thirdly, If we look into the world, we shall And 
 nrost men's lives are almost nothing else but a con 
 tinual course of sin, which though they are as innu 
 merable as the sand on the sea-shore, yet many 
 men never mind them, but they shall all be written 
 in the book of conscience, and come to judgment, 
 though committed never so secret ; for conscience 
 puts them all down against the day of accounts. 
 There is no sin so secret, that will not be brought 
 to light as the wise man saith, What has been done 
 in secret shall be published on the house tops, and 
 shall come to light, Eccl. xii, 14. And for this 
 reason, 
 
 First, Because it makes the sinner the more 
 ashamed and tormented, but the more he perceives 
 his sins, the more it will vex him ; as a man who 
 is in debt, the more he thinks of it, the more it 
 troubles him. 
 
 Secondly, That they may have no excuse, or 
 cloak for their sin, and say, Lord when saw we thee 
 an hungered, &c. the Lord convicts them before he 
 condemns them. From which we might observe, 
 the endless love of God towards man, who fore- 
 warns him of all these things, to the end that he 
 might prevent the danger that he is in, and keep a 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 41 
 
 conscience void of offence towards God and towards 
 man. ' 
 
 Thirdly, To take heed of falling into lesser sins 
 because they usher in greater, for the least of which, 
 were not his mercy infinite, he might justly destroy 
 us. Paul complains of this, and Peter bids Simon 
 Magus to repent and pray, if perhaps the thoughts oj 
 his heart may be pardoned. How careful then ought 
 we to be of our thoughts, and much more of 
 our words, seeing we must give account for all, and 
 our consciences will bear witness against us ; and 
 with holy David to desire the Lord, Not to enter 
 into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight no 
 man living shall be justified. And St. Austin saith, 
 1 ivanf mercy, and as a fugitive I return and seek 
 for peace, and I con/ess I am not worthy to be called 
 thy creature, my conscience tells me so, which is a 
 witness that I daily and hourly carry about me. 
 
 Fourthly, Seeing every man's conscience is his 
 book, we may see the woeful misery of all those 
 who have defiled their consciences ; for as their 
 consciences do accuse them, even so will God con- 
 demn them ; and-if so, what manner of men then 
 ought every one of us to be in all holiness of life ; 
 But alas ! who thinks of this till it is too late, it doth 
 not so much as enter into our hearts ; for if it did; 
 men would not lie, steal, swear, and commit 
 adultery as they do. We pity men who have a 
 bad cause to try before a righteous Judge, and never 
 consider what account we have ourselves to make 
 at this day of the great assize of all the world. 
 
 Fifthly, Seeing the book must be opened, and 
 every man's conscience must come to scanning, 
 how should this cause us all to have a good con- 
 
 (2.) F 
 
42 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 science, and entreat the Lord to exhibit into our 
 minds the certain testimony of his saving grace, 
 which he hath begun to work in us, that we may 
 do that which is pleasing in his eyes, to walk in his 
 commandments, and to keep his judgments, and so 
 being made partakers of Christ's righteousness, we 
 may have the books of our consciences found per- 
 fect, and our misdeeds cancelled, so that we may 
 cry Abba Father, which we cannot do but by having 
 a conscience void of' offence towards God and to- 
 wards man. 
 
 The best means therefore to preserve a good con- 
 science, is carefully to keep that book of account, by 
 which we must be judged : and to do this, there 
 are two things required, First, to avoid all things 
 that may prejudice a good conscience. Secondly, 
 To be careful to use all good means and helps that 
 may cherish it. And so to take care of not falling 
 into any sin, be it never so small, seeing lesser sins 
 usher in greater, and for the least were not God's 
 mercy infinite, he might justly destroy us ; for who 
 can stand before him in the great day of account. 
 
 There are also two especial lets and hindrances of 
 a good conscience, First, Ignorance of the law and 
 word of God ; for when a man is ignorant what is 
 sin, how then can he take heed lest he wound 
 his soul. We must remember that the wages of sin 
 is death, and that eternal both of body and soul ; 
 for till we are mindful of the curse due to sin, we 
 can never repent us of sin, and be so grieved for 
 our sins, as to hunger and thirst after Christ Jesus, 
 whose blood applied to our souls by faith only can 
 purify the conscience, and quiet the heart. 
 
 Secondly, The hindrances of a good conscience 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 48 
 
 is worldly lust as the love and desire of riches, 
 pleasure, honour, &c. which being grounded in our 
 hearts, hinder the keeping a good conscience, to 
 prevent which, let us be careful to do every thing 
 that may cherish true saving faith in us, whereby 
 our souls may be assured of the love of God in 
 Jesus Christ for the pardon of our sins ; and to pre- 
 serve in this faith we must often hear and read the 
 word of God, which will instruct us how to repent 
 sincerely of past sins, and take care not to commit 
 any more for the future, but continue to walk in the 
 paths of faith and true repentance, to the increase of 
 a good conscience, and the saving cf our immortal 
 souls. 
 
 Z When a man is thus truly humbled for his sins, 
 and beggeth of God to forgive him with sighs and 
 groans, then will the Lord send forth into his soul, 
 his blessed spirit to assure him of God's mercy, of 
 the pardon of his sins, and that our wounds in con- 
 science are healed. But, alas ! We find most men 
 in this wicked and adulterous generation, lead such 
 lives, as if they knew not what sin is, and therefore 
 cannot possibly have a clear conscience, for, what- 
 soever is not of faith is sin. Although I am per- 
 suaded, that there is not so wicked a sinner living, 
 but at sometimes his conscience checks him. 
 
 When a man has got a good conscience, and is 
 truly humbled for his sins, and finds that his con- 
 science doth not accuse him, even then he must 
 take no less pains to preserve it. O Lord, saith 
 David, a wounded conscience, who can bear ? A man's 
 conscience is like the apple of his eye, prick it but 
 with a pin, and it will endanger the sight ; so prick 
 the conscience with sin, and it will make havock 
 
4J THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE 
 
 of the soul, and therefore Solomon saith, Counter- 
 guard thy hearty and watch over thy soul, Prov iv. 6. 
 It is requisite therefore to walk with God, by 
 example, as did Enoch and Elias, so to order our 
 lives, as if we were always in the presence of God ; 
 for whatsoever we may think, his all-seeing eye is 
 ever looking into our thoughts and actions, when 
 we least imagine he beholds us ; and though he for 
 a season delays to punish sinners, yet most certainly 
 the day will come, when we least think of it, and 
 it will fall heavy upon us in the end. Which to 
 have always in our thoughts, is the ready way to 
 make us l^eep a good conscience, the want of which 
 emboldens men in sin, because they consider not, 
 that God sees them, and that they have a con- 
 science within them to witness against them at the 
 last day. 
 
 And another JBook was opened, which is the Hook of 
 
 Life. 
 
 What is meant by the Book of Life ? 
 
 The meaning of this book is, that when Christ 
 the Judge has examined the book of men's con- 
 sciences, to view what is therein written and found 
 that according to their evidence, as it testifies good 
 or evil, judgment may accordingly be awarded ; 
 and now he sheweth that he will open a second 
 book, and this book is even the Book of Lite, 
 which is so often made mention of in the Old and 
 New Testament, as that of Moses, Exod. xxxiii. 
 31, 32. Oh this people have sinned a great sin, 
 therefore now if I hop pardon their sins, thy mercy 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 45 
 
 will appear ; but if thou wilt not, I beseech thee 
 rase me out of that book which thou hast written. 
 And David saith Psalm lix. 28. Let them be blotted 
 out of the Book of the Living;, and not be written 
 with the righteous. And He v. iii. 5. He that 
 overcometh shall be covered with white raiment and 
 I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life. 
 And the Holy Ghost speaking of the heavily 
 Jerusalem, saith, There shall in no ivise enter into 
 it, any thing that dejileth or worketh abomination, 
 or maketh a lie : but they which are writU n in the 
 Lamb's Book of Life. ISovv titis Book of Life so 
 often made mention of in the holy Scriptures, can 
 be nothing else but Gods eternal council, purpose 
 and decree, to the faithful in Christ Jesus, on whom 
 he will bestow eternal life and bapphess ; for we 
 must not imagine that God has neea of any book, 
 but he only expresses it thus for our understanding : 
 as a captain recordeth the m.^es of his soldiers, 
 or as the names of the magistrates are recorded in 
 cities, so God has enrolled the names of all his 
 saints in the Book of Life, so that not one of them 
 shall perish. 
 
 . Doct. 1 . Thus having explained what is meant 
 by this Book of Life, it is next to be considered, 
 what is to be learned from hence, which is to know 
 assuredly that God has a Book of Life, wherein the 
 names of his chosen are written, who is able to call 
 over his servants by their names ; for Christ is the 
 true shepherd of his flock, and they are always 
 numbered before him, 1 am saith he, the good s / te p. 
 herd, I knoiv my sheep, and am known oj them, John 
 x. 14. for the knowledge of God is so truly ex- 
 act and perfect, that nothing is so secret that is 
 
40 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 hid from him, He searchclh the heart, he trieth the 
 reins, and under stand el h the heart long before, — his 
 eyes are like a flame of fire, and his feet like Jiue 
 brass, Rev. ii. 18. 
 
 What are the Uses ? 
 
 Use 1. Now as for the uses of these consider- 
 ations, we may behold the blessed and happy estate 
 of all the elect and chosen children of 'God; for all 
 these are written in the Book of Life, and so conse- 
 quently blessed and happy for ever, If thy name be 
 written in the Book of Life, thou shalt never perish. 
 For Christ will not blot out their names that are there 
 written, but own them before his father, who is in 
 heaven, and there prefer them to honour and glory, 
 and to endless joy and comfort ; whom God loveth 
 once, he loveth to the end. But miserable and 
 wretched is the state of those whose names are not 
 found to be written in this Book of Life in the last 
 day ; for they shall not enter into the joy of the 
 JNew Jerusalem, but be utterly excluded from all 
 happiness and comfort. However, let none be too 
 secure, that their names are written in this book, and 
 rely upon that omy for their salvation, doing- other- 
 wise as themselves list, lest in the end, they find 
 themselves miserably mistaken and deceived. Take 
 heed, I say, with St. Paul, that Evil communication 
 do corrupt good manners, for although God has made 
 us without our help, or whether we will or no ; for 
 if he hath elected any man to eternal life, he hath 
 ordained that they shall walk circumspectly in the 
 way leading thereunto, so that by their good works 
 which others behold, they may glorify their Father 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 47 
 
 which is in heaven, it being impossible that a good 
 man can lead a wicked life, and live and die there- 
 in. And therefore they that imagine they be the 
 children of God, and their names are written in the 
 Book of Life, that they may live as they please, do 
 cast away their souls, and like Cain and Judas are 
 their own judges and executioners. For as God 
 has ordained some men to eternal happiness, 
 and written their names in heaven, so he hath 
 appointed them the way to walk in, and bring 
 them to it. 
 
 Use 2. It is plainly told that God has a book 
 wherein all the names of the elect are written, yet it 
 is presumption in any one to presume to say, he is 
 certain his name is set down therein, if he lead a 
 sinful coarse of life, or neglects to work out his own 
 saltation with fear and trembling. We find oui 
 blessed Saviour, when his disciples rejoiced, because 
 the devils were subdued and cast out by them ; say, 
 Nay, Rather rejoice, because your names are written 
 in the Book oj Life. This indeed is a joy, far ex- 
 ceeding all other joys ; and yet many rather rejoice 
 to be the son of a rich man, a gentleman, or noble- 
 man, to have gold and silver, lands and livings, 
 which often makes them so lofty and proud, that they 
 forget God, and a good conscience, which must be 
 their only comfort upon a death-bed, But ivho is he 
 that rejoiceth hi this, that he is the son of God, and 
 his name is ivritten in the Book of Life, which is a 
 joy indeed, and yet we find but few, rejoicing at this 
 great benefit, of being a child of God, and that his 
 name is written in the Book of Life. 
 
 If we set bounds to our love to God, or to our 
 service to God, or if we limit ourselves to our 
 
43 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 obedience to the Holy Ghost, love one command 
 and slight another, obey in one point, and yet lie 
 cross in another, then is all we do, but a serving 
 Gou in part, and hastening to our own destruction, 
 for our conscience tells us, we ought to serve him 
 with all our might and power : but if we love the 
 Lord with our whole heart and whole soul, and serve 
 him with all our might and strength ; if we esteem 
 all God's precepts concerning all things to be right, 
 and have respect to all his commandments, then we 
 may be ascertained that our names are written iu 
 the Book of Life. 
 
 What Conscience is. 
 
 If I set bounds to my love to God, or to my 
 service to God ; if I limit myself in my obedience 
 to the holy God, love one command and slight 
 another, obey in one point, and offend in another, 
 it is all but the working of a natural conscience. 
 But on the other hand, if we love the Lord with 
 our whole heart, and whole soul, and serve him 
 with all our might and strength, Matt. xxii. 37 
 And if we esteem all God's precepts, concerning all 
 things to be right, and have respect unto all the com- 
 mands, then is our love and service from a renewed 
 conscience. 
 
 If a carnal man's conscience check or accuse for 
 sin, then he seeketh to slip the mouth of it, but not 
 to reform it ; for such men's business is to stifle 
 conscience, whenever it flies in their faces, and 
 accuses them : but the true believer chusest rather 
 to let conscience cry, than to stop the mouth of it, 
 until he can do it upon good terms, and can fetch 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 49 
 
 in satisfaction to it, from the blood of Jesus Christ, 
 by fresh acts of faith apprehended and applied. 
 
 The wicked man seeketh to still the noise of 
 conscience, rather than remove the guilt ; but the 
 righteous seeketh the removal of guilt by the appli- 
 cation of Christ's blood, and then conscience is 
 quiet of itself.* As a foolish man having a mote 
 fallen into his eye, and making- it water, he wipeth 
 away the water, and labours to keep it dry, but 
 never searches his eye to get out the mote ; but 
 a wise man mindeth not so much the wiping, as the 
 searching the eye, somewhat is got in and that 
 causeth the watering, and therefore the cause must 
 be removed. 
 
 Now then, if, when conscience^ accuseth for sin, 
 I take up a form of godliness to stop the mouth 
 of conscience, and if hereupon conscience be still 
 and q.uiet, then is this but a wicked conscience : 
 But if when conscience checks, it will not be satis 
 fied with any thing but the blood of Christ, and 
 thereupon I use duties to bring me to Christ, and 
 if I beg the sprinkling of his blood upon my con- 
 science, and labour not so much to stop the mouth 
 of it, as to remove guilt from it, then is this a re- 
 newed conscience. And it is a matter of endless 
 comfort to God's children when they know this, 
 That they are the children of God, and that eternal 
 life belongs unto them, it will stir them up to obey 
 God with joy and cheerfulness all the days of their 
 lives. But the wicked man let him go never so far, 
 let him do never so much in matters of religion, yet 
 still he has a Delilah, a bosom sin, which draws 
 him off from God and godliness. 
 
 If then we profess religion, If we make mention of 
 
 (3.) G 
 
50 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 the name of the Lord and make our boast of the law, 
 and yet through breaking the law dishonour God, 
 Rom. ii. 23. If we live in the love of any sin, and 
 make use of our profession to cover it, then are we 
 hypocrites, and our duties flow but from an evil 
 conscience : but on the other hand, if we name the 
 name of the Lord Jesus, and withal depart from 
 iniquity, if we use duties, not to cover, but to disco- 
 ver and to mortify sin, then are we upright before 
 God, and our duties flow from a renewed conscience, 
 David hated every false way, he regarded no iniquity 
 in his heart, Psalm Ixvi. 18. 
 
 Marks of God's children by the Spirit. 
 
 The first mark whereby we may know whether 
 we be elected or not, is the witness of God's 
 Spirit, and the testimony of a good conscience, 
 Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to 
 fear, but ye have received the spirit of' adoption, 
 ivhereby we cry Abba Father* The spirit itself 
 beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the 
 children of God : And if children then heirs ; 
 heirs of God, and joint-heirs ivilh Christ, Rom. 
 viii. 16. Wherein the apostle saith, that wicked 
 and ungodly persons, who are not directed b\ the 
 Spirit of God, but live in sin, have no true peace 
 in their souls ; but on the other hand, the children 
 of God, have the spirit of adoption, which assures 
 us of our election, and makes it known unto us 
 that we are the sons of the Almighty. St. Peter 
 admonishes, To give all diligence to make our cal- 
 ling and election sure, , 1 Pet ii. 20. And our 
 Messed Saviour bids his disciples, Rejoice that 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 51 
 
 tlieir names are written in the Book of Life, John 
 xix. And the articles of our belief do confirm the 
 same, which teaches us to believe the Catholic 
 Church, and that we shall have life everlasting, 
 which we may be assured of, if we have a lively 
 faith and hope in him, and a firm reliance upon 
 him, and then we may address ourselves to his 
 mercy seat with comfort, and a sure confidence in 
 him. 
 
 And that no man may deceive himself, St. Paul 
 gives us two signs to know whether we have the 
 testimony of the Lord's spirit or not, it will make 
 us cry unto God, and even fill heaven and earth 
 with sobs and sighs for the pardon of our sins, as 
 David did, who in the sincerity of his heart humbly 
 confessed his sins unto the Lord, which he left 
 upon record for us to imitate : this is very unlike 
 to what many do now-a-days, who say they hope 
 to be saved, and yet never pray to God for pardon 
 of their sins, but pass away their time in sports and 
 pastimes. 
 
 The second means whereby we may know that 
 our names are written in the Book of Life, which 
 very near concerns the welfare of the soul of every 
 man and woman, is by the Word of God, which 
 expressly tells us, Whosoever believeth in Christ 
 Jesus shall be saved : And therefore it is necessary 
 we should be mindful and attentive in harkening 
 unto the word of God, that we may be able to 
 try and prove ourselves, whether we be in the faith 
 or not ; whether we be the children of God or no ; 
 for a child of God hearing this comfortable doc- 
 trine opened by Gods ministers can safely say I 
 can apply this promise to myself, as a man or wo- 
 
52 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 man that have true faith, are certain they shall be 
 saved ; for we may know our election hy the fruits 
 it brings forth in our lives and conversation, as well 
 as the blessed testimony of God's Holy Spirit, which 
 cannot deceive : for the fruits of election are set 
 down by the Holy Spirit, that all men may be able 
 to examine and try themselves, and know whether 
 they be ordained to life or not, Hom. viii. 30. 
 Whom he predestinated them he also called ; and 
 whom he also called, them he also justified, them he 
 alto glorified. In which words we may see the 
 marks of our election ; for all that are written in 
 this book are first called. Secondly justified. And 
 Thirdly sanctified. So then if any man would 
 know whether he is elected to life eternal : let him 
 examine himself in these three effects of his flection, 
 whether he is called, justified, and sanctified : and if 
 so, then he is sure that he is elected, without which 
 no man can be sure. 
 
 So that you see, the way to know this, is by 
 descending into ourselves, and looking on the 
 marks and testimonies of our own hearts, to prove 
 that we are included in the number of God's elect ; 
 for as Solomon tells us, As water share t h face to 
 facet so even the heart slieuctlt man to man, Prov. 
 xxvii. 19. For if we find written on the tables of 
 our hearts, the true marks and tokens of God's 
 children, then let us conclude that our names are 
 written in the Book of Life : but as for those who 
 continue in sin, they will find their case to be very 
 deplorable, and can only say to themselves, that their 
 souls totter on the brink of everlasting destruction, 
 into which, without God's infinite mercy, they 
 must be swallowed up at the last day. St. Paul 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 53 
 
 tells us, the wicked and ungodly sinners who are 
 destitute of the Spirit of God, to guide them in the 
 way of truth, have only the spirit of bondage, Rom. 
 viii. 15. But in the next verse he saith, They that 
 are his children, have the spirit of adoption, which 
 makes known unto them that they are his elect ; for 
 saith he, His spirit doth witness to our spirits, that 
 we are the sons of God, Rom. viii. 16. And to prove 
 it, he adds, that the Spirit of God makes all his 
 chosen ones to be lowly and humble, meek and 
 contrite, continually crying and praying unto God 
 with sighs and tears, which God will not despise nor 
 reject. So David, who was a man after God's 
 heart, confessed his sins, Watering his couch with 
 tears. But those whose hearts are hardened, and 
 cannot thus pray unto the Lord, but their devotions 
 seem tedious, wearisome and uneasy to them, are in 
 a bad state, and have not the spirit of God witness- 
 ing to their spirit, and take more pleasure in sin, 
 Whose wages is death, than in godliness, which is 
 great gain. 
 
 When a man comes to see his sins, and God's 
 anger for them he dislikes them, grieves for them, 
 bewails them, and begs pardon for them, and be- 
 gins to become a new man, to believe in Christ, 
 and to seek after happiness as Nicodemus did, 
 and is afraid to offend his heavenly Father ; not 
 so much out of fear of punishment for sin, as out 
 of filial duty and obedience to him, who so loved 
 us from the beginning. But then we must take 
 heed that we deceive not ourselves with an outward 
 calling, for our Saviour saith, Many arc called but 
 f€h) are chosen. Before a man can be justified, he must 
 repent him of his sins, and then Christ will assure 
 
54 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 him of pardon. And therefore if any would know 
 whether he is justified or not, he must first consi- 
 der, whether he has repented so as to be truly hum- 
 bled for his sins. And in the next place, he must 
 have a true faith in Christ Jesus to lay hold upon 
 him, and wrestle with him, as Jacob did with the 
 angel, and not let him go till he gives him a blessing. 
 
 The third fruit of election is sanctijicalion which 
 consists in two parts : First, To die to sin. Secondly, 
 To rise to righteousness. If you hate your old sins, 
 and delight in holy duties, it is & true sign that you 
 belong to God ; but if you do favour the things be- 
 longing to the flesh, and desire the garlic and flesh 
 pots of Egypt, then you have no assurance of sal- 
 vation. 
 
 Use. 1. If thy'name is written in heaven, nothing 
 can hurt thee, though thou be poor with Job, sick 
 Hezekiah, in prison with Joseph, 'Jialed to death 
 with thy Saviour Christ, nothing can hurt thee ; for 
 if God justify, who can condemn. 
 
 Secondly, Seeing God has written down the name 
 of every man and woman that shall be saved in the 
 Book of Life, and shewed us the way that leads to 
 it, and unless we walk in that way, we cannot come 
 to it. It behoves every one of us to walk in that 
 way, which leadeth to life, and not to serve sin and 
 Satan any longer, but labour to die to sin, before we 
 die to nature, and bury sin before it buries us ; for 
 sin brings nothing but shame in this life, and per- 
 dition in the life to come. 
 
THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE. 
 
 — y 
 
 DISCOURSE III. 
 
 Rev. xx. 12, 13. 
 
 12. And the dead were judged out of the Booh of those things 
 which were written in the books, according to their works. 
 
 13. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death 
 and hell delivered up the dead thet were in them, and they 
 were judged every man according to their works. 
 
 i S for the Book of Life, I tfiink ]'. have suffi- 
 
 A f 
 
 ciently explained that it is the counsel and de- 
 cree of God's election, whereby he has chosen certain 
 men and women out of the lump of mankind, who 
 have their names registered, that they may be ad- 
 mitted to eternal life, which every one ought to be 
 assured of, as they might certainly be, by the marks 
 set down in scripture, and by the testimony of God's 
 spirit which cainot lie. 
 
 -■ Secondly, By the fruits and effects of election, as 
 vocation, justification, and sanctification, love of one 
 another, and obedience to all the commandments of 
 God, and therefore it very much concerns every one 
 of us, to endeavour with all our might and main to 
 make our calling and election sure, or we cannot 
 be saved, " Behold I give you' power to tread on 
 serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the 
 enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you : 
 notwithstanding, in this rejoice not, that {he spirits 
 
56 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 are subject unto you ; but rather rejoice, because 
 your names are written in heaven," Luke x. 19, 20. 
 without which we can have no true joy to our souls, 
 notwithstanding we live in all the splendour and 
 glory imaginable ; which most men are very care- 
 ful to mind, and at the same time neglect the most 
 substantial happiness, and saving their immortal 
 souls. 
 
 After what maimer all men shall be judged. 
 
 Nt. John proceeds to describe the last judgment, 
 as it was revealed to him in his wonderful vision 
 in the isle of Patmos, where it was necessary to have 
 it because it was private and free from company, 
 and to solace him in that solitary place, so that his 
 soul might the better be fitted with contemplation 
 to receive the power of God ; for when the help 
 of man is furthest off, then God is nearest. And 
 the reason he gives us of it is, " That every man 
 shall be judged according to those things which are 
 written in the book according to our own works." 
 
 It hath been already said, That he saw all, both 
 great and small stand before God. None shall be 
 wanting at that day, every man's book shall be 
 opened, and every one's conscience shall be tried 
 by the things that are written in the book, and 
 nothing that is alleged shall be gain said : And 
 although it might be wondered how so great a mul- 
 titude shall be judged, and every man's book shall 
 be read, no, not one shall be wanting, although 
 we see what a long time it holds our Judges in this 
 world, to try a few persons, where there is such 
 calling of evidences, such producing of witnesses, 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 69 
 
 such preferring of indictments, yet at the day of 
 judgment, every man's own conscience shall either 
 justify or condemn him in a moment. When Christ 
 Jesus the great Judge, shall sit upon the throne of 
 his glory, attended by his holy angels, saints, and 
 martyrs, then shall the book of every man's con- 
 science be opened, and According to those things 
 which are in the book they shall afresh call to mind 
 their former sins which they have committed, and no 
 one shall be able to contradict what he is accused of. 
 
 From which words I shall observe these two 
 tilings : First, Who they are that must come to 
 judgment, even the dead both small and great, who 
 have laid many thousand years rotting in the grave. 
 And Secondly, That God would have us assured of 
 the day of judgment. 1. For his glory. 2. For 
 our comfort. 3. To keep us in fear of him. 4. That 
 all might be inexcusable. 
 
 The first may serve to exercise our patience, and 
 to put a bridle on all our thoughts, words, and ac- 
 tions. Secondly, By hindering our curiosity, to keep 
 us within the bounds of our duty. To which end 
 the Apostle saith, Be ye always ready ; for in such 
 an hour as ye think not of, the Son of Man comet h. 
 And Thirdly, The means by which we must be 
 tried, They are our consciences, which are the books 
 of record, that either excuse or condemn us at. that 
 day. And Fourthly, The touchstone of; this trial is 
 the Word of God. ' 
 
 Saint John saith, both small and great must stand 
 before God, from whom nothing can be hid, and 
 the dead shall be judged, their long continuance in 
 the grave cannot make them to be forgot. They 
 must then give an account of their good and evil 
 
 (3.) ii 
 
58 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 deeds, though they have been ever so long' ago, all 
 shall appear open to his eyes, to whom darkness is 
 as light. And every thought, word, and action 
 shall be remembered that have been com nutted a 
 thousand years ago, of which we must give an ac 
 count, as well as a malefactor that died but yester 
 day. Though Cain be dead long since, yet his sins 
 are not dead. No more than Judas who betrayed 
 his Master above seventeen hundred years since, 
 who will be called to an account before Mm who 
 sitteth on the throne, and judgeth all according to 
 I itcir WOrJcs. 
 
 On the other hand, those that have done well, and 
 suffered for righteousness sake, shall be rewarded, 
 as the apostle saith, Sitting- upon twelve thrones, 
 judging the twelve tribes of Israel, Sec not that 
 they shall give judgment, but only accompany him 
 to approve the equity of it. A likeness whereof we 
 have in these our earthly judgments, where justices 
 and men of account sit with the judge, not that 
 they have to do in pronouncing sentence or judg- 
 ment. 
 
 But those that have done violence, and lived in a 
 course of sinning, shall tremble with horror at the 
 expected sentence, as we read Luke xiii. 18. There 
 shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when their 
 evil consciences shall fly in their faces, and bring in 
 an accusation against them. Then the usurer, the 
 drunkard, the swearer, the profaner of the sabbath, 
 who thought that death would end all their misery, 
 will find themselves mistaken, when they see them- 
 selves along with Dives, seeing Lazawts in Abra- 
 ham's bosom, and with him they shall be tormented 
 without relief. And what will add to their misery, 
 
OK, DAY OF JUBILEE. 59 
 
 will be to behold Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with 
 the apostles, martyrs, and other holy men, entering 
 into the kingdom of heaven, and advanced in glory, 
 whilst they are shut out themselves, and deprived ot 
 that happiness, which they might so easily have 
 obtained. 
 
 Then shall their consciences accuse ( them, when 
 they shall say within themselves, " These are they 
 whom sometimes we had in derision. These are 
 they whom we wronged, and whom we so much 
 oppressed and scorned," and said unto ourselves, 
 " We fools thought their lives madness, and their 
 ends without honour ; But now we find they are 
 counted amongst the children of God, and their por 
 tion is among the saints, and they are highly advanc 
 ed in God's favour. But we, alas! have not known 
 the ways of God, nor lived in his fear, nor walked 
 diligently with upright conscience before him." Ah ! 
 poor souls, they shall then wish for death : but, alas, 
 alas, death shall fly from them. Oh! it had been 
 good for them, if they had never been born, or had 
 rather been toads and serpents, for in death these 
 have an end : It is not so with the wicked man, for 
 when he is dead, even then begins his greatest 
 misery. 
 
 Remember this then all of us in time, whilst the 
 golden opportunity is held forth, for though thou 
 die, yet thy sins die not with thee, Remember, O 
 young man, that for all this, thou must come tojudg 
 mcjit, saith Solomon, even all old sins tshat have been 
 committed in secret, will then come to light. Oh, 
 then, let us watch over our lives, and have this still 
 in our minds, that although we die and rot in the 
 grave, yet our sins will not die, they must come to 
 
60 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 light. For St. John tells us, that The dead were 
 judged, even those that were forgotten long ago, for 
 God will bring every work to Judgment, with every 
 secret thing, ivhether it be good, or whether it be evil, 
 Eccl. xii. 24, which must needs be a great terror 
 to .the wicked ; but the saints of God will be safe 
 from this fear, being comforted by a good conscience 
 and the assurance they have of eternal happiness, 
 through the merits and mercies of Jesus Christ. 
 " Now then, those who have good and holy 
 thoughts written in their book of conscience, shall 
 be glad to have their books laid open, wherein is 
 found, obedience, repentance, faith, hope, love, 
 zeal, patience, fyc. But woe to the adulterers, for- 
 nicators, murderers, liars, swearers, and blasphemers, 
 For the wages of such sins is death, and the wrath 
 and curse of God upon them for ever. 
 
 No excuse in the world will serve to award or put 
 off this trial, it will not do to say, I have married 
 a wife, and, cannot come, or 1 have bought a farm, 
 or a yoke of oxen. Such excuses will not do, come 
 they must, and stand naked before the Judge, as 
 our first parents did, when God called them to 
 trial for transgressing his commandments, who 
 upon their trial made vain and trifling excuses, 
 Adam saying, The woman which thou gavest me, 
 t-ave me of the tree, and I did eat. And Eve 
 thinking to escape after the like manner, saith The 
 erpent beguiled me, and 1 did eat. In like manner 
 Saul made an excuse, when he disobeyed Gods 
 commandment, and said, " I have obeyed the voice 
 of .the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord 
 hent me, and have brought Agag, the king of 
 Amalek. and have destroyed the Amalekites : But 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 61 
 
 the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, and the 
 chiefest of the things, which should have been de 
 stroyed, to offer unto the Lord." As also Pilate, 
 who against his own judgment condemned Christ, 
 and yet would excuse himself by taking water and 
 washing his hands, saying, I am innocent of tht 
 blood of this just man* But this would not do, 
 every man's conscience will tell him otherwise 
 No fair tales, but plain and naked truths, when 
 we shall not be able to answer one word of a thou 
 sand, but forced to confess our misdeeds. And wt 
 shall not find as it is in this world, that we car 
 hope to be forgiven, by asking pardon, but then 
 shall our confession be to our open shame and con 
 fusion, because it occasions (by the means of thost 
 sins we are compelled to confess) our endless des 
 truction. 
 
 And then the Judge shall separate the one from 
 the other, the just from the unjust, the sheep from 
 the goats, " For he shall send for his angels with the 
 great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather to 
 gether his elect from the four winds, and from on 
 end of heaven to another, Matt. xiv. 38. Wherein 
 it appears, all shall come, both good and bad, before 
 the Judge, and then shall the just shine as the sun 
 and be as it were by proclamation, Come ye blessed. 
 which makes St. Paul break out into these words, 
 Herein is the law of God perfect towards us, that 
 we shall have boldness at the day of judgment. Thi> 
 makes the godly wish the hastening of that day and 
 cry, Come Lord Jesus, come quickly. 
 
 Seeing then, that there will be no evidence wanl 
 ing, and that every one carries it in his own breast, 
 and that we must give an account to the Great 
 
at THE EAST CHEAT ASSIZE, 
 
 Judge of all our thoughts, words and actions : what 
 account shall they give who have boon idle bearers 
 and idle doers of his word. 
 
 Use. 1. This should teach us to be continual lv 
 looking over the book of conscience in this life, in 
 order to correct and amend it, so that it may stand 
 fair, when it shall come to be opened in the life to 
 come, which David advises us to, when lie says, 
 1 will take heed to my tvays that I offend not tvith 
 my tongue. Let them who fear the Lord, and love 
 tteir own souls, take all care to make their calling 
 and election sure. St. John tells us. All must 
 appear at the great tribunal. The consideration 
 of which made St. Paul careful to keep his con- 
 science void of offence both towards God, and to- 
 wards man, Acts xxi. because we must receive 
 judgment according to the account written in that 
 book. Oh ! that we might imitate that blessed 
 Apostle, and would stir and endeavour that no 
 filthy sins blot our books but that we keep them 
 lair and clean in the sight of God, which we ought 
 to do above all things in the world, For if our 
 hearts condemn us, God is greater than our heart*, 
 and will also condemn us, 1 .John iii. '10. 
 
 Use 2. Seeing that sentence must pass according 
 to things written in our books, let us not only avoid 
 evil actions, but also evil thoughts and words, that 
 will rise up against us at the last day ; for St. 
 Paul saith, Even thoughts shall either excuse or ac- 
 cuse, us. Rom. i. '10. By which you see, if we 
 would truly repent, we must repent of all our vain 
 thoughts and imaginations, for were llure no other 
 sins, these would rise up, and be a sufficient evi 
 deuce to convict us. 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 63 
 
 Let us not content ourselves to imagine we are 
 safe, if we can say with the Pharisees, lam no 
 drunkard, nor fornicator, nor extortioner, unless we 
 can truly say, that there is not an idle word un- 
 repented of, for even they come to judgment, for 
 1 say unto you, that every idle word that men shall 
 speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day 
 of judgment, Matt. xii. 36. And that we may 
 know more perfectly the meaning of this, St. John 
 saith, That ive shall be all judged according to our 
 works, Rev. xx. 33. And St. Paul saith, 2 Cor. 
 xxii. 10. " We must all appear before the judg- 
 ment seat of Christ, that every, one may receive the 
 things done in his body according to that which he 
 has done, whether it be good or evil.". If thy works 
 be good, thou hast glory, but if thy works be evil, 
 then damnation. Good works although they cannot 
 merit, yet they will shew forth the faith that lay m 
 the heart, for our works shall follow- us, when we 
 rest from our labour and attend us in life or death ; 
 for which reason the day of judgment may be pro- 
 perly called the day of revelation, wherein all hid- 
 den things shall be made known, and the dark 
 secrets and counsels of the heart shall be mani- 
 fested, for then God shall judge the secrets of men by 
 Jesus Christ, Rom. ii. 16. 
 
 Doct. 1 . Men shall be judged according to 
 their works. 
 
 From what has been said, we may see that all 
 men and women shall come to judgment, and be 
 acquitted or condemned by their works, for even 
 Adam entailed death upon his posterity by eating 
 
04 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 the forbidden fruit without repentance, which had 
 Dot been sufficient, had not the Son of God died to 
 appease the wrath of his offended Father, even so 
 man must endeavour by his humility and obedience, 
 by his works of mercy and charity to procure to 
 himself this happiness, or else it will not avail him, 
 for God is not unrighteous to forget your works and 
 labour of love. As it is said of Cornelius, That his 
 prayers and alms came up for a memorial before God. 
 And as the godly shall be rewarded according to 
 tkeir works, so shall the wicked, as their deeds have 
 been in the flesh. " These things hast thou done, and I 
 kept silence, thou thoughtest that I was altogether 
 such a one as thyself : But I will reprove thee, and 
 set them in order before thine eyes," Psalm xx. 21. 
 And again, Iivas an hungry, and ye fed me not, &c. 
 Use 1. This ought to make us above all things 
 to labour and abound in all holy duties and graces 
 of God's spirit, in knowledge, faith, repentance, jove, 
 zeal, cloathing, feeding, and lodging the poor, which 
 Christ takes as done to himself, and according shall 
 be our reward, as he saith, who is the author of all 
 trAith, Verily, verily, of a truth, thou shalt not lose 
 thy reward. Then how ought all men to endeavour 
 that they may be blessed with such a happiness, that 
 eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered 
 into the heart of man to conceive, when we may at- 
 tain it at so small a price, as doing good to our fel- 
 low creature ; for although our good works cannot 
 merit, yet they shall be rewarded, they shall not be 
 forgotten in the day of judgment. They are sacri- 
 6ces well-pleasing to the Lord, and when all our 
 friends and riches can do us no good, they will bring 
 us comfort in cur greatest time of ne<d, and stoptfv* 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 65, 
 
 auger of an all-seeing Judge, who judgeth every one 
 according to his works. 
 
 What is spent in sensual pleasure, brings a sting 
 with it to torment us in the end, being frequently at- 
 tended with punishments in this life ; but in the 
 world to come, most certainly with despair and end- 
 less torments. The remembrance of which, one 
 should think, would teach us First, The fear of God, . 
 ■lot to sin. Secondly, Faith in Christ, to receive eter- 
 nal life. Thirdly, Patience in adversity, because 
 after momentary pain, succeeds everlasting joy. 
 
 Doct. 2. Seeing all these things must come to 
 pass, and that nothing shall go with us when we die, 
 but our conscience and our works, what manner of 
 men ought we to be in all godliness, St. John plainly 
 tells us, that both the quick and the dead shall hear 
 the trumpet, and be gathered together in judgment. 
 First, By the powerful voice of Christ, those that 
 are in the graves shall hear his voice. Secondly, By 
 the ministry of angels that shall gather the elect 
 from all parts, the sea, death, the grave, Ji re, which 
 time and nature consumed, shall give up their dead, 
 and obey the voice of God, as at the creation. 
 
 Doct. 3. Certainly, if men would bnt seriously 
 consider this, they would be wiser than to set their 
 hearts on things that cannot profit. What do men 
 desire ? What do they hunger and thirst after ? but 
 for pleasures, profits, and preferments. For these 
 they spend their labour, wit, and strength ; but 
 there is no account of prayer in their house, no de- 
 sire to attain knowledge, faith and repentance, no 
 conscience to live in the fear of God : Alas ! They 
 never think of these things, but all their desire is for 
 the things of this world : but poor soul, thou canst 
 (3.) i 
 
GO THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 not take one piece of gold or silver with thee, but ail 
 must be left behind, and only thy conscience, and 
 thy works must accompany thee. 
 
 JLet us not then set our hearts too much upon 
 those things which cannot profit us in this fiery 
 day of trial : But let us enter into covenant with 
 the Lord, to strive against the corruptions of our 
 own hearts, wherein we have most dishonoured 
 the Lord, and let us see our covenant be kept and 
 continued as much as in us lieth ; and let us all 
 remember the words of the prophet Esdras, in his 
 second book, chap. vii. 32. " The earth shall restore 
 those that have slept in her* and the Most High 
 shall appear upon the seat of judgment, and miseries 
 shall vanish away, and long suffering shall have an 
 eud; justice only shall continue, and truth shall 
 remain, and unrighteousness shall bear no more 
 rule." 
 
 Let me therefore, in bowels of compassion entreat 
 von to consider in time the things that belong to your 
 peace, before it is too late, laying aside every sin that 
 doth so easily beset you, and so obtain the crown ; 
 for those who do this, shall not miss of the reward 
 which God hath laid up for all those that love and. 
 fear him, and which is of more value than ten thou- 
 sand worlds. 
 
 Now a question may be asked, why St. John 
 saith, all must come to Judgment, when our Savioui 
 saith, " He that believeth, shall not come to Judg- 
 ment, but he that believeth not is condemned 
 already." 
 
 To which I answer, It is true that the faithful 
 shall not come into Judgment, that is, of condem- 
 nation, Rom. viii. 10. " For there is no coudemna 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. G7 
 
 lion to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk 
 not after the flesh, but after the spirit :" But God 
 will pronounce that blessed sentence, Come ye blessed \ 
 &c. As for the wicked they are condemned al- 
 ready: First in the decree of God, aj being repro- 
 bates. Secondly, in the word of God. And Thirdly s 
 In their own consciences. And so we are to under- 
 stand the saying of Solomon, Eccl. iii. 17. " God 
 shall judge the just and the unjust, the one to salva- 
 tion, and the other to condemnation." 
 
 Now as to the third point that I proposed, which is 
 the touchstone of the trial, whereby all mens thoughts, 
 words, and actions, shall be tried. St. Paul tells us, 
 At the clay of judgment, God shall Judge the secrets 
 of all mens hearts by his Gospel, Roai. i. 16. And 
 since it is so, how careful ought we to be, to read 
 and hear and understand his law and gospel, that 
 all our thoughts, words, and actions, shall be agree- 
 able to what is commanded, so that we may be able 
 to chuse that which is good, and eschew that which 
 is evil ; for those who are ignorant of them, are but 
 in a very bad condition, as St. Paul tells us, " That 
 the Lord Jesus will come in flaming lire, to take ven- 
 geance on them that know not God, and that obey 
 not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." And 
 therefore as you love your souls, love ye the word of 
 God, seek with, all diligence to know it, which will 
 stand thee in great stead in the time of need ; when 
 those that neglect it, it will stand against them to 
 their condemnation. 
 
 13. And the sea gave up the dead which icere in her, 
 and death and hell delivered up the dead that ivere 
 in them, and they were judged every man according 
 to their works. 
 
68 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 It is a matter beyond all dispute, that the dead 
 shall rise again. Those who have been eaten by 
 fish, fowl, or wild beast, and men perhaps again 
 have eaten them, and have been afterwards burnt to 
 ashes, which have been scattered over the face of 
 the whole earth ; which makes the atheists say, 
 there shall be no resurrection : Uut did he consider, 
 there is nothing impossible with God, and that it was 
 more difficult to create all things out of nothing than 
 to gather together a little scattered dust, and new 
 forfn it again, he would not dare to dispute the 
 actions of omnipotence, but rather believe it shall 
 be so, because he that said it is all truth, and can- 
 not lie. And this is an article of our faiih, We be- 
 lieve the resurrection of the dead, which were it not so 
 all our religion is in vain : for his resurrection was 
 not only to expiate our sins, but also to obtain righ- 
 teousness for us. Thus confident is Job in this, " I 
 know that my Redeemer liveth, whom mine eyes 
 shall behold." And Isaiah saith, " The dead man 
 shall arise, even with my body shall they arise. 
 Awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust," Isa. xxvi. 
 9. And the apostle Paul saith, " If there be no re- 
 surrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen," 1 
 Cor. xv. 12. 
 
 And again, " If Christ be not risen, then is our 
 preaching vain, and we are in our sins. Moreover, 
 This corruption, must put on incorruption, and this 
 mortal must put on immortality." All must arise 
 whether they be good or bad, As the apostle to the 
 Hebrews saith, It is appointed for all men once to 
 die, and after death cometh Judgment. For by the 
 sound of the last trumpet, the dead shall arise, which 
 is not a common trumpet, but the voice of angels, 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 69 
 
 which shall be heard far and near, nothing shall 
 hinder it, from all the corners of the earth, shall this 
 trumpet be heard, for it is the Lord's signal. 
 
 Reas. 1. And indeed it is requisite it should 
 be so in regard of God's justice, that his promises 
 and threatenings might be made good to the 
 godly and wicked, which in this life many times are 
 not. 
 
 Reas. 2. The very works in nature do in a man- 
 ner shew this, as the trees and plants in the earth 
 in the winter which seem to be dead revive and live 
 again in the spring. And as a phoenix when she is 
 old, burns herself to ashes, out of which she doth 
 revive and live again. 
 
 And why then should any man think it impos- 
 sible for God to raise our bodies out of the dust, 
 which though it seem impossible to man, yet it is 
 not impossible to God ? F r he that created all 
 our bodies with nothing, can make them again with 
 something even of their own matter. And since 
 Christ gave life to himself when in the grave, how 
 much more now being alive, and in heaven glo- 
 rified, is he able to raise his members from death 
 to life. As the apostle Paul saith, " If we believe 
 that Jesus Christ died and rose again, even so them 
 also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him," 
 1 Thess. iv. 14. And as he tells the Romans, " If 
 the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, 
 dwell in you ; he that raised Christ from the dead, 
 shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by his spirit 
 that dwelleth in you," Rom. viii. 21. And to prove 
 the resurrection these witnesses are produced, 
 First, The angels, " Why seek ye the living among 
 the dead, he is not here, he is risen/' Luke xxiv. 5. 
 
70 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 Secondly, The saints that arose with him. Thirdly, 
 A forced testimony of the soldiers. Who came 
 hdo the city, and told all things that lucre done. 
 Fourthly, The disciples and followers of CI) list, 
 and more than live hundred brethren at once. 
 Fifthly, Himself, who bid the woman, Go, tell my 
 brethren that 1 am risen, I Cor. xv. And St. 
 Peter in his first epistle saith, chap. i. ver. ,3. 
 " Blessed be God tne Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, who according to his abundant mercy hath 
 'begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resur- 
 rection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheri- 
 tance* uncorrupt and undented, and that fadetii not 
 away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by 
 the power of God through faith unto salvation." 
 Which St. Paul also confirms in all his epistles, 
 " Christ is risen from the dead, and is become the 
 first fruits of them that slept", I Cor. xv. 20. Like- 
 wise Eph. ii. 6. " He hath raised us up together, 
 and made us sit together in heaven with Jesus 
 Christ." And in Acts iii. 26. " Unto you first, 
 God having raised up his Son Jesus Christ, has sent 
 him to bless you, in turning away every one of you 
 from iniquities." 
 
 Now the benefits he obtained for us by his resur- 
 rection, are 
 
 First, Our justification. 
 
 Secondly, Our regeneration. 
 
 Thirdly, Our resurrection to eternal glory. 
 
 And the fruits of Christ's resurrection are, First, 
 That by his merit, he hath made full satisfaction 
 for our sins. Secondly, The application of his 
 benefits, that could not be conferred unless he had 
 rose again. Thirdly, In the gift of the Holy Ghost 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 7! 
 
 by which Christ regenerates us. Fourthly, We have 
 the same spirit. Fifthly , By the man Christ Jesus 
 came the resurrection from the dead. And Lastly, 
 The fruits of Christ's resurrection is the consumma- 
 tion of happiness, and the glorification of his church 
 militant, by which he hath made us partakers of his 
 righteousness, sanctification and glorification, ■■pur- 
 chased, by his merits only, " These things have I 
 spoken unto you," saith Christ, " that in me ye shall 
 have peace, in the world ye shall have tribulation : 
 Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world," John 
 xvi. 53. And St. Paul tells us, "To this end, 
 Christ died and rose again, ana revived, that he 
 might be both Lord of the living and the dead." 
 Which texts plainly prove the article of our iaith, To 
 believe the resurrection of the dead. 
 
 The hour shall come, saith our Saviour, in which 
 all that are in the grave, shall hear the voice of the 
 Son of God, and come forth. Which is compared 
 to the sound of a trumpet, the loudest and shrillest 
 of all instruments, Thess. i; 15, " For the Lord him- 
 self shall descend from heaven with a shout, with 
 the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of 
 God, and the dead in Christ shall arise." Which 
 noise shall be heard over the whole world; i 
 though men have been many thousand years rotten 
 in the grave, yet they shall hear it, and come forth 
 to judgment. All shall be compelled to appear, 
 even the devils and damned spirits shall be compelled 
 to appear, when every secret thing shall be revealed, 
 and the kings Of the earth, as well as the meanest 
 beggar, skall come to judgment ; for although Christ 
 was a Lamb at his passion, yet many will find him a 
 Lion at his resurrection. 
 
1-1 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 Jt were to be wished that men Would be wise and 
 consider this, that they may in this their day, heai 
 the mild and gentle voice of Christ in his word, and 
 by his ministers calling them to repentance, and for- 
 sake their sins, before they hear his terrible voice call- 
 ing them to judgment. 
 
 Therefore in all afflictions and miseries, and espe- 
 cially ill diseases and death, we must . strengthen 
 ourselves in the hopes of the resurrection, remem- 
 bering that of the apostle, Phil. iii. 20,21. " Om 
 conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look 
 for a Saviour, who shall change our vile bodies, that 
 it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, ac- 
 cording to the working, wherein he is able even to 
 suddue all things unto himself." And that we may 
 be assured of this, St. Paul saith in 1 Cor. xy. 20, 
 21, " But now is Christ risen from the dead, and be- 
 come the first fruits of them that slept ; for since by 
 nan came death, by man came also the resurrection 
 from the dead." 
 
 As for the day of the resurrection, God hath hither- 
 to shut it up in his counsels ; but that it will certain- 
 ly come, has been fully proved, as well as the man 
 ner of it. And that those who are dead, shall be 
 taken up to meet the Lord, if their sins press them 
 not down to destruction. 
 
 This hope of the resurrection, hath ever beeii 
 the greatest consolation to the godly in their afliic 
 tions : VV hence Tertuluan saith, that the confidenci 
 in a christian is in the resurrection from the dead 
 An example of which, is in Job, who in the midst 
 of his afflictions said, " I know that my Redeemei 
 liveth, and that he shall stand in the latter days upon 
 the earth, and though after the skin, worms destnn 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 73 
 
 my body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." And 
 Isaiah saith, chap xx\i. 19. " The dead men shall 
 live, together with my dead body shall they arise: 
 Awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust, for thy 
 dew is as the dew of* herbs, and the earth shall cast 
 out the dead : At that time the people shall be de- 
 livered, every one that shall be found written in the 
 book." And Ezekiel is very plain, when he saith, 
 Thus saith the Lord, " Behold, O my people, 1 will 
 open the graves, and cause you to come out of the 
 graves, and bring you into the land of Israel . And 
 ye shall know that I am the Lord, when 1 have open- 
 ed your graves, O my people ; and brought you up 
 out of your graves, and shall put my spirit into you, 
 and you shall live," Ezek. xxxvii. 12. 
 
 Use 1. Let us die what death soerer/and be scat- 
 tered to the four winds under heaven, yet our dust 
 shall be gathered together by the mighty power ot 
 God, that the soul may again enter into the body, 
 and both come to judgment; therefore whilst we 
 live, let us be mindful of our latter end, and then 
 death shall have no power to do us any hurt ; for if 
 we every hour think of death, it will make us so live, 
 that we may do well, and hope for a glorious resur- 
 rection. As the tree falls so it lies; as death leaves us, 
 so will judgment find us. But in doing wickedly 
 death is so far from ending our misery, that it is the 
 beginning of it, therefore let us take care how we wish 
 for death, e'er we are prepared for it, for if we die m 
 our sins, it had been better for us never to have been 
 born. And every creature else is in a better state than 
 us, because they cease to be, and their pains are at an 
 end ; but it is not so with man, for he has yet an ac- 
 count to reckon for at the day of judgment* 
 
 (4.) K 
 
74 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 Use 2. Seeing that all men must rise to judg- 
 ment, this is a wonderful comfort to God's poor 
 children because they shall receive their recom- 
 pence of reward, for all the labours, sorrows, miseries, 
 scorns, and reproaches, they have undergone in this 
 world ; and the greater their afflictions have been 
 here, the greater shall their happiness be hereafter. 
 
 Use. 3 This ought to be of exceeding comfort 
 to good men, because death shall not have power 
 to keep their bodies in the grave, but they shall rise 
 in glory, as Christ their Captain hath already done, 
 which should make us cautious to keep our bodies 
 undefiled, because they are the living temples of the 
 Holy Ghost. Wouldst thou have thy body glorified ? 
 then glorify God in thy body. Can any man think 
 that his soul shall be saved, and his body glorified, if 
 he use the members thereof, to sin and imclean- 
 ness. 
 
 Use 4. Seeing that the word of God assures us, 
 that whatsoever death we die, we shall rise again, 
 and God's children only shall rise to life and glory. 
 This should teach us not to be sorry for those that 
 die in the Lord, for they rest from their labour, and 
 shall rise again to eternal happiness. 
 
 And they were judged every one according to 
 his works. 
 
 This is often repeated by the Holy Ghost, because 
 we are hardly brought to believe this point ; for were 
 men sensible of this, certainly they would not live as 
 they do in all manner of wickedness. 
 
 How uecessary is it then, that all 'who are blinded 
 with ignorance and deluded with the suggestions of 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 75 
 
 the devil, and their own wicked imaginations, to 
 pray to God for the assistance of his Holy Spirit in 
 all their ways, that they may see their mistake, and 
 acknowledge with the true penitent, the judgment 
 and wrath of God due unto them, and to endeavour 
 to die to sin, before they die to nature, and strive to 
 bury it, before it bury us, for sin only brings shame in 
 this world, and perdition in the life to come. By 
 which we shall not only enjoy a quiet conscience in 
 this life, but »end our days with full assurance of a 
 joyful resurrection in the life to come, as the consum- 
 mation of all happiness. 
 
THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE. 
 
 THE FOURTH AND LAST DISCOURSE 
 
 CONCERNING 
 
 Death and Hell, and the Joys of Heacen. 
 
 Rev. xx. 14, 15. 
 
 14. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, this is 
 the second death. 
 
 15. And tohosoever was not found written hi the Book of 
 Life, was cast into the lake of. fire. 
 
 k N handling- this weighty point of religion, the se- 
 cond coming of Christ to Judgment, I told you 
 who the Judge is, and how he shall come with great 
 power and majesty, attended with an innumerable 
 company of angels, and all the host of heaven, and 
 also the evidence and records by which all must be 
 tried, even the books of conscience, of life, and the 
 word of God. It now remains, that we come to the 
 execution of that judgment upon all the ungodly, 
 who in this life have turned their backs upon good 
 admonition from God's ministers ; which is a very 
 terrible tiling,- when Jesus Christ, the second person 
 in the Trinity, shall say unto them, " Depart from 
 me ye cursed into hell fire, there to remain for ever 
 with the devil and his angels, &c." when immedi- 
 ately the execution of the sentence shall follow, 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 77 
 
 Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, that is 
 the second death. 
 
 Before I proceed any further, it will not be amiss 
 to explain the meaning of this, because some have 
 made an objection that death is no creature, nor 
 hath any sense of feeling, and consequently not sub- 
 ject to pain or torments : And as for hell, how can 
 it be cast into itself, when it is there already ? Which 
 must be meant by the lake of fire. Is hell a water, 
 or fire ? And then how can they die, who are doom- 
 ed to live eternally in torments, and wish to die, but 
 cannot. 
 
 To which I answer, By death and hell in this 
 place, is not meant death itself, nor hell itself, but 
 the persons who have made themselves heirs of 
 death and hell, by their wicked J courses and repro- 
 bate living in this world, who shall be cast into 
 hell fire, and there abide for evermore ; so that 
 these are spoken metaphorically, referring to those 
 that die in their sins ; namely, all reprobates, all 
 stiff-necked Pharoahs, all bloody Cains, all trea- 
 cherous Judas's, all these shall be cast into the 
 lake ©f fire. 
 
 This shews the misery of those that die, in their sins. 
 
 Use 1. Let all sinners then tnat live and deliglrf; 
 in sins take heed ; for as the prophet saith, Who 
 can divell zvith everlasting burnings ? It were to be 
 wished that all wilful sinners would think in time 
 of this horrible misery that hangs over their heads. 
 What a strange kind of speech is this ? When God 
 called such reprobates, even death and hell itself, 
 where the worm of conscience shall never die, 
 
78 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 which will be always gnawing- and tormenting 
 them, continually bringing into remembrance the 
 happiness they have lost, for a few empty pleasures. 
 Oh ! would to God, that the drunkard, the swearer, 
 and adulterer, the profaner of the Lord's day, 
 would lay this to heart before the vials of God's 
 wrath be poured upon them. 
 
 Wicked men now do as the people did in Isaiah's 
 time, Isa. xxviii. 21. make a league with death and 
 the grave, as the rich man in the gospel, who said to 
 hfc soul, Soul take thine ease, for thou hast goods and 
 riches laid up Jor many years : But the Lord tells 
 them he will break the league, and that notwith- 
 standing all their boasting and security, in the end 
 death shall knock at their doors, and then they shall 
 pay dear for their long lease, even the loss of soul 
 and body for ever. 
 
 And is not this the daily practise of most men and 
 women now-a-days, do not many men live in swear- 
 ing, lying, drunkenness, &c. as if they thought they 
 should never die. But alas ! poor souls, let them 
 know, that death and hell will seize upon them at 
 last, and they must he cast into the lake of fire. 
 
 Use. 2. In this you may see what a cursed and 
 wretched thing sin is in the sight of God, which makes 
 men become fire-brand6 of hell. 
 
 AjfiA death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. 
 
 Now as to this fire, it cannot reasonably be taken 
 for a material fire, though that is very dreadful, but 
 for something far exceeding it, because it never shall 
 go^ut, nor ever consume what is doomed to abide 
 in it, though it torments with unspeakable torments, 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 79 
 
 then let us consider it, as the Holy Ghost in the 
 text means it, the second death not of the body only, 
 but of eternal death and damnation both of body and 
 soul for evermore* By which Ave may plainly see, 
 there is a double death, first of the body, and then 
 at the coming of the Lord to judgment, of the soiil 
 and body. 
 
 The first death is the separation of the soul fi:om 
 the body, and that is common to all, only in this it 
 differs, There is no condemnation to them that are in 
 Christ Jesus, Rom. viii. 1. But those that die in 
 their sins, shall be pimished with everlasting destruc- 
 tion, being severed from the blessed presence of the 
 Lord for ever, and from the glory of his power, 
 2 Thess. i. 9. which is a very terrible death, to be 
 deprived of God, wherein the happiness and joy of 
 God's children shall stand in the beholding of God, 
 and enjoying his presence for evermore, Matt. v. 8. 
 and to be compelled to have the company of infer- 
 nal fiends always upbraiding and tormenting those 
 that are so unhappy and miserable as to fall into 
 this lake of fire, that cannot be quenched. 
 
 Secondly, Men and women shall not only be se- 
 vered in body and soul, from the blessed and glo- 
 rious presence of God for ever, at whose right hand 
 is pleasure for evermore, but shall be cast into the 
 lake of fire, and have their abode with the devil, 
 and all the damned spirits in hell, where there is 
 nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth as our 
 Saviour himself hath expressed it, Depart from me 
 ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil 
 and his angels, Matt. xxv. 14. Which words in- 
 clude all the misery that can befal a sinner, to be 
 out of the sweet and comfortable presence of Christ 
 
80 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 Jesus, and his holy angels, saints, and all the blessed 
 in heaven, to be companions with devils in the terri- 
 ble lake of fire and brimstone. 
 
 Thirdly, The misery is the greater, because it is 
 eternal punishment ; for St. John saith, The smoke 
 of their torments shall ascend evermore, and they shall 
 have no rest day nor night, Rev. xiv, 11, which is an 
 unexpressible punishment ; for the damned shall not 
 only lose Gods glorious presence, in which is fulness 
 of joy tor evermore, but be perpetually tormented in 
 unextinguishable flames. The ivrath and vengeance 
 of God shall seize on them, and feed on them, as fire 
 doth on pitch and brimstone, where they shall" be 
 ever burning, and yet never be consumed, this is a 
 torment that cannot be expressed said Isaiah lxvi. 
 24. That their worm shall not die, and their fire 
 shall not be quenched. Which is a very miserable 
 condition in three respects. 
 
 First, In regard of the degrees of it. 
 
 Secondly, In regard of the place. 
 
 Thirdly, In regard of the perpetuity of it. 
 
 The .first appears in the loss of our blessed com- 
 munion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
 In tvhose presence is life, and at whose right hand is 
 pleasure for evermore. But the wicked shall be pu- 
 nished at that day with Everlasting destruction from 
 the presence of the Lord, 2 Thess. i. 9. which is a pu 
 nishment that we may guess to be intolerable enough, 
 to burn and not to consume, to live and to have no 
 end, which will make them to " cry out to the rocks 
 and mountains to fall upon them to cover them, 
 when there shall be tribulation, anguish, and wrath 
 upon every man that doth evil," Rom. xiii. 4 
 
 Secondly, In regard to the place ; which is hell, 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 31 
 
 which in the scripture is called, " The bottomless 
 gulph, utter darkness, the fearful tophet, the dun- 
 geon of despair, the burning lake, the hollow cave, 
 the choice of all confusion, the grave of perdition, 
 whose furnace is always burning, whose fire is made 
 by God's wrath, and his power upholds it, and it is 
 blown with the bellows of his indignation, it is un- 
 quenchable, even prepared for the devil and his 
 angels." 
 
 TJdrdly, In regard of the perpetuity of this pun- 
 ishment, it shall never have an end, it shall be with- 
 out hope of intercession ; for St, John saith, Rom. 
 xiv. 1 1 . The smoke of their torment shall ascend 
 for evermore, and they shall have no rest day nor 
 night. 
 
 O ! that men would consider theSe things in time, 
 and not cast away themselves to gain riches, plea- 
 sure, or honour, whilst they neglect the most weighty 
 things necessary to salvation, which is timely repen- 
 tance, and living up to those rules that are appointed 
 to work out our salvation, whilst it is yet to day, 
 least the night of death should come upon us una- 
 wares, and no man can work. 
 
 There is no man living but hopes to escape this 
 death, this flaming fire, and by that hope to defer 
 their repentance till old age come upon them, and 
 they are not capable of doing any thing else : But 
 this oftentimes deceives them, for the Holy Ghost 
 by the mouth of St. John, saith, " The fearfril, and 
 unbelievers, and abominable, and murderers, and 
 whoremongers, and sorcerers, and liars, &c. shall 
 have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and 
 brimstone, which is the second death," Rev. xxi. 8 
 And after this, there m no repentance, no recovery, 
 
 (40 * " 
 
82 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 there will be a great gulph, as Abraham told Dives, 
 between the godly and ungodly ; for the godly shall 
 see and behold the ungodly in hell, as Lazarus did 
 Dives in hell torments. 
 
 So that yon see that the spirit of God saith, and he 
 eannot lie, Thai all wicked and ungodly sinners shall 
 he cast into the lake of fire, which' many men and 
 women will not believe although it is often mention- 
 ed in the scripture, who will say tush, there is nothing 
 in it, God is merciful ', which in plain words it is to 
 ^ive God the lie who is the fountain of truth : 
 and yet tell the drunkard and profaner of the Lord's 
 day, that they must give an account of those things, 
 and without speedy repentance, they will be damned 
 for them, they will presently say, they hope to be 
 saved as well as the best, notwithstanding the Holy 
 Ghost hath so often said, That, " all unbelievers, 
 and thives, and murderers, &c. shall be cast into the 
 lake of fire and brimstone which is the second 
 death." 
 
 But the spirit of God doth not only shew those 
 whose heart tremble for fear of those things, and 
 whose s'oul doth melt for fear of this second death, 
 how to escape this terrible lake of fire, which is 
 eternal damnation and torment both of body and 
 soul, but to obtain salvation and joy in the presence 
 of God for evermore, " Blessed and happy is he thai 
 hath his part in the first resurrection, for on such the 
 second death shall have no power : But they shall 
 be the Priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign 
 with him a thousand years, that is, for evermore," 
 ver. 6. 
 
 The Holy Ghost saith, they, and none but they 
 that have their parts in the first resurrection, shall 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 83 
 
 escape the second death, and eternal damnation in 
 the lake of hell tire. Therefore it is manifest the 
 children of God have a double resurrection, and 
 one death, but all wicked and ungodly sinners have 
 one resurrection, and a double death, for they that 
 are to escape eternal damnation, are they that have 
 their part in the first resurrection, and that is by 
 rising out of the grave of sin, to the newness of 
 life, which is otherwise called dying to sin, and 
 living unto Christ. As St. Paul saith, " You hath 
 lie quickened, who are dead in trespasses and sin," 
 Eph. ii. 1 . " Therefore are we buried with Christ 
 in baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised 
 from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so 
 we also should walk in newness of life," Rom. vi. 4. 
 
 Now to know whether this may be aptly ap- 
 plied unto us, is to look into our own souls, and 
 there to examine ourselves, whether we are risen 
 from sin in this life, to a newness and holiness of 
 life, and whether we labour to mortify and keep 
 under the works of the flesh, and walk in all holy 
 duties of obedience to God and man. And if so, 
 there is great hopes we have attained to the first 
 resurrection ; but then be sure to take heed to your 
 ways, that you fall not again into sin, least it adds 
 new fuel to burn you with : remember what is 
 said, There is no condemnation to them that are in 
 Christ, which walk not after the flesh, but after the 
 spirit. 
 
 Therefore let every man and woman labour to be 
 sure of the first resurrection, and then this second 
 will be easy to them, and they shall enter from 
 judgment into heaven, and remain there m bliss 
 for ever and evej-, aceompained with cherubims'i 
 
04 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 so rap] rims, arch-angels, angels, saints, and all the 
 holy company of blessed spirits. 
 
 This is a very great comfort to all the real mem- 
 bers of Christ that forsake their sins, and endea- 
 vour to conquer their unruly lusts, and even to live 
 a godly life, though they are in misery, poverty, 
 or want, and in the end die the first death of the 
 body, yet they shall be freed from the second death 
 which is eternal. " The gates of hell shall not pre- 
 vail against them ;" for as St. Paul saith, " The elect 
 5hall have eternal life, but tliey that be reprobates, 
 shall be cast into the lake of fire ; for if ye live after 
 the flesh, ye shall also die," Rom. xiii. 8. 
 
 Therefore deceive not yourselves, as too many do, 
 who think if they come to church every Lords-Day, 
 and receive the Sacrament now and then, all is well; 
 but let me tell you, ye may come to church all your 
 lives, and receive the sacrament ever so often, yet 
 unless you live a godly life and strive to become a 
 new creature, your estate is in a very deplorable con- 
 dition, and your portion is likely to be the lake of 
 fire and brimstone. Therefore let no man deceive 
 himself, to imagine because he now and tlien hears 
 a sermon, or receives the sacrament, that he is 
 out of all danger, and sure of heaven : but that 
 will not do, no, not by a great deal ; for if a man 
 live in sin, as swearing, drunkenness, whoring, 
 &c. he is in a miserable state, and may go to hell, 
 notwithstanding all his pretensions to religion. 
 
 Nor is this all, to die and go to hell alone, -for 
 they shall be in the sea of miseries, and in an ocean 
 of calamities, lire continually flaming about them, 
 and yet they not consumed, rage and madness/ and 
 wrathful indignation, shall be within them, having 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 85 
 
 the worm of conscience (which never dies) continually 
 tormenting them. And what is more, when they 
 shall look up, and behold the angels and saints re- 
 joicing and triumphing- in the presence of the lamb, 
 and at that same time, they see nothing about them 
 but brimstone and hot burning coals : They shall be 
 always in the flames, but never consumed, their 
 meat shall be griping hunger, and their drink lakes 
 of tire and brimstone, and their pleasure, howling and 
 roaring of foul deformed fiends accompanied with 
 devils. 
 
 Thus heaven they have lost, which cannot now 
 be recovered, and hell they have received, whose 
 torments they must endure. What doleful cries 
 shall those miserable wretches then screek out ? They 
 shall howl and weep because they cannot be heard, 
 which if they could, no man will pity them ; which 
 will make them curse their birthday and the paps 
 which gave them suck, continually crying, Wo, Wo ; 
 that ever I was born, to neglect God's command- 
 ments, and to break his laws, running after my own 
 inventions, I cannot say but I have justly deserved 
 this punishment. 
 
 And therefore you see if you would live after you 
 are dead, you must die to sin, while you are ali\ e, 
 only those who die to sin, shall live to righteousness ; 
 but he that lives in sin, shall die for his sins eter- 
 nally, and as he would not labour to have his part 
 in the first resurrection, so he shall be sure to have 
 his portion in the second death ! To prevent which 
 miserable condition, let every man and woman la- 
 bour to have their part in the first resurrection, so 
 thai the second death may do us no harm, but they 
 shall live in joy and happiness for ever in heaven 
 
THE LAST GEEAT ASSIZE, 
 
 with the almighty, and all the arch-angels, angels, 
 saints., and martyrs, who shall be their companions 
 for ever and without end. 
 
 In this kingdom there shall be eternal plenty, 
 God will give them the Water of Life, out of the 
 rivers of his pleasure, there shall be neither hunger 
 nor thirst, but all shall be supplied and satiated 
 with every good thing". Here we see God but in 
 part, and that through a glass, but there we shall 
 behold him face to face. It will be a wonderful 
 §^lory to the children of God to bear the similitude 
 of Jesus Christ, " who shall change our vile bodies, 
 to be like to his glorious body, according to his 
 mighty working, whereby he is able to subdue all 
 tilings to himself," Phil. ii. 24. 
 
 Therefore let every man and woman endeavour 
 lo seek the kingdom of God, for if that be once 
 found, there is no need of any further happiness ; 
 but if it should be lost, though we should gain the 
 whole world, it would prove but madness and 
 folly. And as it is not possible for the tongues of 
 men and angels to express the joys of heaven, so it 
 is impossible to express the miseries of the damned. 
 In short, to gain the one, and avoid the other, is 
 the main end for which man receives life and be- 
 ing ; and therefore it behoves all to endeavour to 
 make their calling and election sure, so that they may 
 be received into the eternal habitation of bliss and 
 happiness. 
 
 1. And ivhosocver was not jound writ ten in (he 
 Book of JJ/e, was cast into the lake oj fire. 
 
 The former verse shews the execution of Gods 
 wrath upon all ungodly and wicked sinners ; and 
 
OK, DAY OF JUBILEE. G7 
 
 this the different estate of the children of God, and 
 of the wicked ; for as there are but two sorts of 
 men, good and bad, the children of God, and the 
 children of the Devil, so there are but two places, 
 heaven, and hell, joy and pain, and the rewards 
 shall be accordingly, either blessed or cursed; for 
 St. John saith, The elect shall have eternal life, but 
 they that are reprobates, shall be cast into the lake of 
 fire. 
 
 As the lives' of the godly differ from the ungodly 
 in this world, so their condition after this life is 
 far different ; for as the one shall be eternally mi- 
 serable, so the other shall be blessed and happy for 
 ever; nay, to such a degree St. Paul saith, " As the 
 eye never saw it, nor ever entered into the heart of 
 man, to conceive the hundredth part of this happi- 
 ness," 2 Cor. ii. 9. 
 
 First, The blessed estate of the will consists in 
 this, that God shall be all in all unto us. If thou 
 desire wealth, God will be it to thee ; if honour or 
 pleasure, God will be all in all to thee. • 
 
 Secondly, In the kingdom of heaven, there shall 
 be no manner of want, for all defects of body and 
 soul shall be supplied : and though we see God 
 now but in part, yet then we shall behold him face 
 to face, not in a> i glass darkly, but see him even as 
 we are seen, and for evermore live in his blessed 
 presence, and reigii with him for ever. 
 
 Thirdly, All the children of God shall be like 
 •into Jesus Christ, as St. Paul saith, He shall change 
 our vile bodies, and make them like to his glorious 
 body. 
 
 Fourthly, In heaven we shall reap endless joy, 
 and eternal happiness and shall- delight in praising 
 
88 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 God for ever, so as we shall keep a perpetuaV Sab- 
 bath, and joy in the service of God for ever, where 
 we shall have joy without sorrow, day without 
 night, no valley of tears, but a Sion of glory, and 
 endless comforts. When wretched will be the 
 condition of those, who siy, it is in vain to serve 
 the Lord, or as Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, 
 that I should fear him. Which m^a then shall 
 know it is not in vain to serve the Lord, for if we will 
 not keep a good conscience, and go to heaven by 
 ^ood example, Ave must go to hell with the wicked 
 for company ; which should make us abound in holy 
 duties, since God will reward even the least work 
 of faith. 
 
 If thou give but a cup of cold water in the name 
 of Christ, verily thou shalt not lose thy reward, for 
 though works do not merit,, yet they are rewardable. 
 What madmen then are w r e, if we never think of hea- 
 ven, till we have one foot in the grave, we cannot go 
 to heaven on beds of down ; no, we must strive and 
 take pains to enter in, far the gate is strait, and nar- 
 row is the ivay. 
 
 It grieves a man to think what will become of the 
 ungodly sinners, whose names are not written in the 
 Book of Life. Alas ! poor wretched souls, the 
 Holy Ghost saith, They shall be cast into the lake oj 
 fire. And Christ pronounces this terrible judgment, 
 Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, pre- 
 pared for the devil and his angels, Matt. xxv. 41. 
 Ah ! miserable wretches, it kad been better for them, 
 that they had never been born, or had been toads or 
 serpents rather than men ; for they shall not only be 
 cast from the presence of the Almighty, and his holy 
 angels, but shall be cast into the lake of tire forever. 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. '30 
 
 Now although I have already told you, What is 
 meant by this lake, and the torments all wicked and 
 ungodly men and women shall sutler therein, yet for 
 your further instruction, I shall set down these three 
 material points with as much brevity as they will 
 admit of. 
 
 First, The extremity of it. 
 Secondly, The perpetuity of it. 
 And Thirdly, That from it there is no redemp- 
 tion. 
 
 As for the extremity of it, the pains are intolera- 
 ble, and beyond all expression. 
 
 As to the perpetuity of it, it is endless, for so long 
 as God is God, so long shall the damned be torment- 
 ed in this flame, and that is to all eternity. 
 
 And, as from that there is no redemption, certain 
 it is that Christ having once died to save man, will 
 not die again ; without which God's wrath cannot 
 be appeased. 
 
 These things well considered, one would think, 
 should make the flinty hearts of sinners to melt and 
 break to pieces, for fear they should come into the 
 place of torment, this lake of fire . Which the 
 Spirit of God so often repeats in the scriptures, be- 
 cause men are so negligent of this weighty matter, 
 their own salvation. Now, because it is called a 
 lake of fire, it signifieth the extremity of torment, 
 which the scriptures gives several names, to show 
 the unspeakable torments all wicked and impeni- 
 tent sinners shall suffer to all eternity, for of all 
 torments none is so great as fire : Besides, " Their 
 worm shall never die". And Isaiah saith, " Tophet 
 is prepared for the King, he cannot escape, and it is 
 deep and large, and the burning thereof is fire and 
 
 U. M 
 
m THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 much wood, arid the breath of the Lord as a river of 
 brimstone shall kindle it," Isa. xxx. 33. By which 
 may hi pari conceive the extremity of this woe- 
 mi lake of hell fire. But had I the tongue of men 
 and angels, I could never express it in full : for as 
 the joys of heaven are unspeakable, so the torments 
 of hell are idea of it ; and that is, God knows, but 
 a small one, you must know that the torments of 
 hell are universal, even in all the parts of the body, 
 and faculties of the soul at the same time. The 
 pains in this life are for the most part particular in 
 "Vne part of the body, but in this lire the sinner shall 
 be tormented in all parts at once. For the truth of 
 which, I shall give you an example in the rich glut- 
 ton, who cried out, " Father Abraham, have mercy 
 n:i me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of 
 his finger in water, and cool my tongue ; for I am 
 tormented in this flame," Luke xvi. 24. 
 
 To prevent which, let us make that use which 
 our Saviour advises, If thy right hand or foot offend 
 thee, cut them off, and cast them from ihec, that is 
 as much as to say, let us forsake our darling be- 
 loved sins, for it is better to go lame into heaven, 
 han whole into hell. 
 Secondly, As the pains of hell are without any 
 <\ so they are without any end. As Abraham 
 tells Dives, You are there, and cannot come hither, 
 Luke xvi. 26. It is a lake of fire and brimstone 
 that burnetii for ecer, Rev. xxii. It can never be 
 quenched : what fools are they then, who to en- 
 joy the pleasure of sin for a season, will endure the 
 torments of hell for ever. 
 
 Thirdly, They are remediless, for the rich man 
 in hell would have given the whole world, if he had 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. m 
 
 it, only for one minute's ease, but it could not be 
 had ; there is no remedy in hell, no silver nor gold, 
 no wit nor policy will help, but he must abide by 
 the judgment, which makes the devils and damned 
 spirits to tremble, and yet it cannot move stony 
 hearted sinners to be afraid ; which is very strange 
 that men should run headlong upon that destruction, 
 which they may in time preven; 
 
 Our blessed Saviour tells us, that the soul of 
 the poor beggar is more worth than many thou- 
 sand worlds, What benefit were it for a man, saith 
 he, to ivin the whole world, and presently to lose both 
 body and soul. No less comparable to this, which 
 is of all losses, is to be severed from God, and be 
 in hell tormented for ever. Let its remember the 
 word of St. Peter, 2 Pet. iii. 9, and so on, " The 
 heavens and the earth which are now, by the same 
 word are kept in store, and reserved unto fire against 
 the day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly men. 
 The Lord is not slack but patient : but the day of 
 the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which 
 the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and 
 the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth 
 also, and the works that are therein shall be burnt 
 up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, 
 what manner of persons ought veto be in holy conver- 
 sation and godliness, looking for, and hastening unto 
 the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens 
 being on fire, shall be dissolved } But we look for 
 new heave.ns, and a new earth, according to his 
 promise wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, 
 beloved, seeing you look for such things, be diligent, 
 that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, 
 and blameless, and account that the long suffering 
 
*>2 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 of the Lord is salvation. Now the end of all thine;' 
 isl at hand, be ye therefore sober and watching in 
 prayer." And St. Luke bids you, chap. xxi. verse 
 34. " Take heed to yourselves, least at any time 
 your [ hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and 
 drunkenness, and cares of this life ; and so that day 
 come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it 
 come on all them that dwell upon the face of the 
 whole earth : Watch ye therefore and pray always, 
 that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all those 
 things that shall come to pass, and to stand before 
 the Son of Man :" for it is he that will say, " Arise 
 ye dead and come to judgment. 
 ! And now having done with all the text, which 
 is the lake that burneth ivith fire and brimstone for 
 ever. I will not leave you in horror and dread,, but 
 comfort you with the joys of heaven, and hap- 
 piness of the blessed that shall dwell therein for 
 evermore. As St. Paul relates in 1 Cor. ii. 9. 
 " The things which eye hath not seen, nor ear 
 heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, 
 the things which God hath prepared for them that 
 love him." 
 
 No man can express the comforts and enjoyments 
 of heaven, any more than he can imagine the miser- 
 able pains and agonies of the damned. 
 
 All men must own that the kingdom of heaven 
 is a glorious }!>lace because it is the residence of 
 the Great God, which made holy David cry out, 
 O how beautiful are thy tabernacles, thou Lord of 
 hosts I Wherein St. Paul being taken up, he heard 
 unspeakable words, which is not lawful for any man 
 to utter, 2 Cor. xii. 4. All we know or can say 
 of it, is only this, it is a spiritual kingdom, and 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 93 
 
 its glory is past all imagination, which St. John 
 describes to he adorned with all the glorious things 
 that are desirable on earth. The heavens, where 
 the moon is more glorious than our sun, and the 
 sun as glorious as he that made it ; for it is he him- 
 self the Son of God, the Sun of Glory. A new- 
 earth, where all their waters are milk, and all their 
 milk honey, where all their grass is corn, and all 
 their corn manna; where all their glebe is gold, 
 and their gold innumerable carats ; where all their 
 minutes are ages, and all their ages etefnity, where 
 every minute is every minute in the highest exalta- 
 tion ; as good as it can be, and yet super-exalted,, 
 and infinitely multiplied by every minute's addi- 
 tion, every minute infinitely better than ever it was 
 before : Of these new heavens and* this new earth, 
 we can only say, that we can say nothing : for the 
 eye of man hath ?wt seen, nor ear heard, nor heart 
 conceived, the state of this place. We limit and de- 
 termine our considerations with that horizon with 
 which the Holy Ghost hath limited us, that it is that 
 New heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righ- 
 teousness. 
 
 To those who are affected with riches, the Holy 
 Ghost saith, Rev. xxi. 18. That that new city shall be 
 all of gold, and in the foundations all manner of pre- 
 cious stones. To those that are affected with beau- 
 ty, he promises an everlasting association, with 
 that beautiful couple, that fair pair, which spend 
 their time in contemplation, Behold thou art fair, 
 my Beloved, and she replies, Behold, thou art fair 
 too ; signifying the mutual compliance between 
 Christ and his church, Cant. i. 13, 10. To those 
 which delight in music, he promises continual 
 singing, and every minute a new song. To those 
 
94 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 whose thoughts are exercised upon honour and titles, 
 rivil or ecclesiastical, he promises priesthood ; and 
 if that be not honour enough, a royal priesthood. 
 And to those who look after military honour, tri- 
 umph after their victory in the Church militant. Iu 
 short, as David saith, " We shall be satisfied with 
 the abundance of God's house, and he shall give us 
 waters of his pleasure, as out of a river." Even 
 blessings shall be heaped upon his saints, and though 
 they may differ in glory, as one star differeth from 
 another, yet all shall shine very glorious. 
 
 '' You see then what a blessed life is, it is the frui- 
 tion of God himself, in heaven, where we behold 
 God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, vot darkly 
 as in a glass, but face to face, free from all miseries, 
 diseases, labour, and grief with ineffable comfort. 
 This world is but a vale of tears, and this life is 
 full of misery, but God in the world to come will 
 wipe them all away. " He will swallow up death in 
 victory ; and the Lord God will wipe away tears 
 from off all faces, and the rebuke of his people shall 
 he take away from off the face of the earth : For the 
 Lord has spoken it." Why may not we then cry out 
 with the Prophet David, " Lord, what is man that 
 thou takest knowledge of him, or the son of man 
 that thou so resiardest him ?" 
 
 As the Prophets of old did stir up people's minds 
 by expectation of temporal blessing, and thereby 
 give them hopes of greater blessings to come, so let 
 us grow up into admiration of those heavenly and 
 inexpressible excellencies, which are altogether prast 
 our apprehension, and understanding; for as spiri- 
 tual blessings do far exceed corporeal blessings, so 
 heavenly joys do far surpass all earthly glory. 
 Jf Abraham left his country and his lather's 1- 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 9b 
 
 for a land he knew not ; and Moses refused to be 
 called the Son of Pharaoh's daughter, despising all 
 the glories of the court of Egypt, to accompany the 
 children of Israel through a barren and desert wil- 
 derness to the earthly Canaan ; how much more 
 should we leave all to journey toward this heavenly 
 country, whose pleasantness to hear of it is so ravish- 
 ing to our ears, although it is but a dim and faint 
 representation of what it really is in its own ex- 
 cellency. To do which, let us make haste to re- 
 concile ourselves with God, by a true and sincere 
 repentance, running into the arms of Christ, who is 
 continually holding them out to receive us into all 
 those joys, which he has prepared for all them that 
 love and fear him in the heavenly Jerusalem, the 
 city of God, where St. John saitlif? " He saw the 
 holy city, New Jerusalem, come down from God 
 out of heaven, prepared as a bride trimmed for her 
 husband :" of which we may say with David, Psal. 
 lxxxiv. 1,2." How amiable are thy tabernacles, O* 
 Lord of hosts ! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth 
 for the courts of the Lord, my heart and my flesh 
 crieth out for the living God. Blessed are they that 
 dwell in thy house, they will be still praising thee ; 
 for a day in thy court is better than a thousand. 
 I had better be a door keeper in the house of God, 
 than to dwell in the tents of the wicked. 
 
 Secondly, This kingdom of heaven is a paradise, 
 it is a kingdom of grace, it is the kingdom of glory, 
 a celestial kingdom, not made with hands, but a n 
 immortal kingdom, for ft is established' by graco : 
 whose King never dies and at whose right hand i ire 
 pleasures for evermore, whiilh made David say , I 
 had fainted, unless I had believed to see the gpod- 
 
m THE LAST GKEAT ASSIZE, 
 
 ness of the Lord in the land of the living, which 
 since the beginning of the world, men have not 
 heard, neither hath the eye seen, O God, besides 
 thee, what he hath prepared for him that waited for 
 him, Psalm xxxvi. 7«, 8. " How excellent is thy 
 loving-kindness, O Lord ! Therefore the children 
 of men put their trust under the shadow of thy 
 wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the 
 fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them 
 drink of the rivers of thy pleasure : for with thee is 
 J;he fountain of life, and in thy light shall we see 
 light." This city then is the Holy of Holies, in 
 respect to the glorious company that is in it, foi 
 there are none but saints and angels, and it is most 
 holy, because it is the habitation of the Lord of 
 Hosts, whose glory exceeds all our imaginations. 
 
 If Peter, who saw r our Saviour's transfiguration 
 in the mount, which was but an image of the glory 
 that was to be, said unto Jesus, Master, it is good 
 for us to be here, rejected all worldly pleasures in 
 respect to that, What shall we say, when we have 
 the fruition of the same, Blessing, and- glory, and 
 honour, and poiver, and might, be unto our God for 
 ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 By these words you see, how glorious the city of 
 God is ; the walls are of jasper, and the foundations 
 of precious stones, the gates of pearls, and the 
 pavements of pure gold ; and if so, how much 
 more comfortable are tiiose things within the city ? 
 According to Rev. ii. 17. " To him that over- 
 cometh, will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and 
 will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new 
 name written, which no man knoweth, save he that 
 recieveth it." 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 97 
 
 The greatest joys on earth, are of least account 
 in heaven,' for all shall be crowned, 2 Tim. iv. 8. 
 " Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteous- 
 ness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give 
 me at that day ; and not to me only, but unto all 
 them that love his appearance." Whose kingdom 
 is past our imagination, and contains in it all that 
 can be wished or desired ; for which reason Abraham 
 did forsake his own native country, his friends, and 
 his father's house, to go into a land he knew not 
 where. And Moses forsook Egypt, and refused 
 to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. And 
 holy men and women in the gospel left their riches 
 and all that they had, and laid them down at the 
 apostle's feet, wandering up and down in wilder- 
 nesses and in mountains, and hiding themselves in 
 dens and caves of the earth : but they had a re- 
 spect unto the recompence of reward, the kingdom 
 of God, where they desired to be. Therefore if 
 we desire to come to this place of happiness, come 
 with Jesus Christ in our hearts by faith and plead 
 Iris merits, death, and passion, and so enter into 
 his joy. 
 
 The Heavenly Joys of his Soul. 
 
 The joys that belong to the heavenly Jerusalem, 
 principally affect the soul, which is the principal 
 part of man, and then the body, for that, at the 
 resurrection, being reunited to the soul, shall with 
 it partake of this happiness, that the whole man 
 may receive his full perfection, as he was at first 
 created And whereas the only delight of a godly 
 man, is to serve and praise God, especially in the 
 
 (5.) n 
 
03 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 church ;md in the congregation, they meet together 
 to worship and adore his holy name. But in this 
 celestial Jerusalem, there will be no need of a church 
 or temple, for the Lord God Almighty, and the 
 Lamb are the temple of it. And therefore why 
 should men and women be so backward to enter 
 into this joy, where we shall have in that celestial 
 mansion, no joy by weight or measure, but in the 
 overflowing abundance even to excess ; which to a 
 pious and godly soul is as wings to carry it through 
 all the miseries it meets with in this vale of tears, 
 whHst it remains here in the body, as in prison, la- 
 bouring to be released, that it may fly to its heavenly 
 home. And where, as St. Ambrose saith, rivers of 
 joy and comfort, so ranch, as we shall be overcome 
 with joy, which will be as it were wings to the soul, 
 to fly through this valley of adversities ; for as long- 
 as the soul is in the body, it is confined as a bird in 
 a cage, and cannot get out. 
 
 Thus, you see, in the presence of God shall be all 
 happiness, and " at his right haud "are pleasures for 
 evermore." And as it is said, " The four and twenty 
 elders fell down and worshipped him that sat on the 
 throne, and cast their crowns before him," so shall all 
 the blessed of heaven do, singing " praises and halle- 
 lujahs ;" for we find Rev. vii. 4. " That the hundred 
 forty and four thousand, which had the name of God 
 in their foreheads, do sing a new song before the 
 throne, and no man could learn that song, but the 
 hundred forty and four thousand, which were redeem- 
 ed from the earth, and they were cloathed in long, 
 white garments, having palms in their hand. Ver. 
 9. Which cried with aloud voice, saying, Salvation 
 be ascribed to him that sitteth upon the seat of our 
 
OR. DAY OF JUBILEE. 9g> 
 
 God ; and all the angels stood in the compass of the 
 seat, who fell before the seat on their faces, saying, 
 Amen, Blessing, and glory, wisdom, thanks, ho- 
 nour, power, and might, be unto our God for ever- 
 more." 
 
 And as these did, so shall all those that come be- 
 fore God's presence with souls full of joy and thank- 
 fulness, who being filled with abundance of all spiri- 
 tual comfort, shall not cease to sing hallelujah and 
 praises to God, who is the author and giver of all 
 happiness : To whom grief and sorrow will be stran- 
 gers, and the voice of mourning shall be no more 
 heard, but every tongue, and every place shall 
 sound with praises and thanksgivings to the Son of 
 God, the Son of righteousness, for his goodness in 
 taking our nature upon him, and His mercies in suf- 
 fering an ignominious death to save all that believe 
 in him. 
 
 This made holy David long to come into his 
 presence, when he cried out, When shall I come and 
 appear before the presence of God ? For certainly it 
 is an unspeakable happiness to be in his presence, at 
 whose right hand are pleasures for evermore. 
 
 Now shall the minds and hearts of those that* are 
 thus blessed, be filled with abundance of spiritual 
 comfort, for we see now but in part, but then shall we 
 see in fulness of glory, when all terror and darkness 
 of ignorance shall be taken away, and we shall desire 
 to see God ; as holy David saith, " My soul thirst- 
 etn after thee, like as a hart desireth the water brooks, 
 so longeth my soul after thee, O God, yea, even for 
 the Living God: When shall I come to appear be- 
 fore the presence of God ?" Then shall our desire 
 be fully satisfied, and that which was denied the pro- 
 
100 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 phet Moses, to see the glory of God in this life, shall 
 then be granted to every one that shall there be 
 placed. This is what all good christians ought to 
 long for, and earnestly desire, since it is the con- 
 summation of all they can breathe and pant after, as 
 an ease of all misery. 
 
 • Then grief of mind and sorrow of heart shall be 
 utterly removed, no weeping, no mourning, no 
 lamentation, to be heard throughout the holy 
 mountain. Behold, saith the prophet in the per- 
 son of God, " My servant shall sing for joy of heart, 
 I will joy in my people, and the voice of weeping 
 shall be no more heard, nor the voice of crying," Isa. 
 Ixv. 14. " For God shall wipe away all tears from 
 their eyes, and there shall be no more sorrow, neither 
 shall there be any more pain ; for the former things 
 are past away/'^Rev. xxi. 4. That is, those which we 
 suffer in this life, shall not molest us any more with 
 sorrow, but joy and gladness remain for ever. 
 Afflictions shall never be felt, nor complaint heard, 
 nor cause of grief, but happiness which shall abun- 
 dantly over-recompence all the sufferings of the 
 righteous in this life. In God we shall fiud all 
 knowledge, wisdom, beauty, riches, nobility, good- 
 ness, delight, and every thing that deserveth our 
 iove and admiration, or worketh pleasure and con- 
 tent. All the powers of the mind shall be filled 
 with the light, presence, and fruition of God, and 
 all the senses of the body shall be satisfied. God 
 will be all things unto us, causing our souls to be 
 enlightened, and shine with righteousness, holi- 
 ness, and all spiritual graces, which should raise 
 up our souls to a cheerful undergoing all miseries 
 whatsoever which may happen in this life, and 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 101 
 
 comfort all the children of God under their af- 
 flictions, and make them more cheerfully to bear 
 the troubles and want of life, for God is a con- 
 tent to our will, and a continuation of eternity 
 to our memory. Ju him we shall enjoy all the 
 varieties of things that are delightful here, and all 
 the joys that content us now, when our souls shall 
 be restored to the image of God, in a full measure, 
 as it was first created, and be thoroughly beautified 
 and adorned with spiritual graces. 
 
 The Heavenly Joys of the Body. 
 
 As for the heavenly joys of the body, the com- 
 modities and privileges of it, contributing to make 
 them full, as thev are thus united - ' to the soul are 
 many ; for it shall have no need of any thing- to 
 preserve it, that in its corruptible state is requisite 
 to its subsistence, nor sustain any of these infirmi- 
 ties that it is in this world incident to, neither shall 
 any night shadow it ; for as it is recorded in the 
 verse before the text, That the city had no need of 
 the sun, or of the moon, to shine in it, which is as 
 much as to say, there shall be no earthly' wants. 
 Notwithstanding the heat of the sun is a great bless- 
 ing to this world, and most comfortable to man and 
 beast, because it bringeth forth the fruits of the earth 
 for man's food, and without which all things seem to 
 be sad and lowering, but then shall we need not thi> 
 blessing: for the presence of God shall comfort us, 
 and the glory of God shall supply the want of the 
 sun and moon ; which will always illuminate it, and 
 give it a -perpetual day, far more bright and gloriou- 
 than the sun is capable of doing w r hilst it remains 
 
102 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 below. Its food shall be spiritual nourishment., and 
 its cloathing the white robes of Christ's righteous- 
 ness, all things shall then be ministered unto us 
 abundantly, that we shall not so much as think of 
 any want, whether it be food or cloathing, or any 
 comforts of this life whatsoever : for as the prophet 
 Isaiah saith xlix. 10. " They shall neither hunger 
 nor thirst, neither shall the heat or sun smite them, 
 for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, 
 even by the springs of water shall he guide them."' 
 Where the body shall be fearless from hurt and 
 danger, and from the enemy ; no secret contrivances 
 nor circumventions shall molest its quiet, but it shall 
 rest always at ease in the pleasant vales of heaven ; 
 death shall then be swallowed up in victory, and 
 have no more power over us. 
 
 In this world the body hath need of rest, but in 
 heaven there shall be no need of rest. Here are 
 houses shut for fear of thieves, but there they shall 
 be always open, because there shall be no fear of 
 public or private enemies, nor fear of future hurts or 
 dangers. They that are oppressed in this world, 
 had need of friends to help and comfort them, which 
 are very rare to be met with ; but their violence shall 
 no more be heard of, nor oppression be so much as 
 thought of, but every ones case shall be fairly and 
 impartially heard, and every wrong shall be righted. 
 And as no grief of mind, so no disease of body shall 
 molest us, neither shall there be any use of physic ; 
 all imperfections shall be turned into perfections, 
 and all deformity into beauty. Death, which is the 
 mighty conqueror of mankind, shall then be trodden 
 under foot; for death shall be swallowed up in 
 victory, so that with comfort we may then say. O 
 

OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 103 
 
 death, where is thy sting ? O grave where is thy 
 victory ? There we may freely eat of the Tree of 
 Life, without any danger of forfeiting its happiness, 
 which our first parents could not taste of, nor so 
 much as touch ; for though they tasted of the Tree 
 of Knowledge of Good and Evil, yet they were 
 soon cast out of paradise for it, lest they should put 
 forth their hands, and take the Tree of Life also, 
 and eat and life for ever, Gen. iii. 22. In this New 
 Jerusalem we shall enjoy mirth without sadness, 
 health without sickness, strength without weakness, 
 life without labour, light without darkness, and hap- 
 piness without end. It shall always flourish in youth 
 and beauty that never fade or decay. There it shall 
 have joy without ceasing, happiness without change; 
 and in short whatever can contribute to a perfect 
 felicity. For it shall be freed from all corruption, 
 mortality, or other casualty ; and all it has to do, 
 is to praise and magnify the living God, who doth 
 all this and abundance more for us, and who shall 
 set his seal upon us, and imprint the name upon our 
 foreheads, as a mark that we are his beloved chil- 
 dren, worthy to hear the ravishing melody and 
 harmony of the angels antheming the thro.ie of God, 
 whilst we ourselves join in the holy choir, singing 
 continually praises and hallelujahs to him that liveth 
 for ever and ever. 
 
 Now man grieves for the loss of his body, and 
 delights of the world, which faith alone doth ease, 
 that promises an undoubted restitution of the body, 
 to a better condition, and assures him of everlast- 
 ing life, in which shall be everlasting blessedness. 
 Then, as I formerly said, shall this body be free 
 from all corruption, and men shall then be like 
 
104 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 angels, free from want and poverty. They shall 
 hunger no more, nor thirst, neither shall the sun 
 scorch them ; for the Lamb which is in the midst 
 of the throne shall feed them, and lead them unto 
 the living fountain of water, and " God shall wipe 
 away all tears from their eyes," Rev. xxi 4. "I 
 saw no temple therein that was made with hands, 
 (saith St. John,j for the Lord God Almighty, and 
 the Lamb, are the temple of it," Rev. xxi. 22, 23. 
 %" And the city had no need of the sun, neither of 
 the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did 
 enlighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof," 
 whom his servants shall serve, they shall see his 
 face, and his name shall be in their foreheads. Who 
 shall continually hear such heavenly music which is 
 sung «by the choir of angels in the church triumphant, 
 that it would ravish any soul on earth to hear ; which 
 St. Bazil saith, To hear is more sweet than devo- 
 tion, and far sweeter than all things in this world 
 can be. 
 
 Let us therefore be converted, and turn unto the 
 Lord with all our hearts betimes, that when we die, 
 We may with holy David, lift up our voices and say, 
 " Ob ! how great is thy goodness, which thou hast 
 laid up for them that fear thee ; which thou hast 
 wrought for them that trust in thee, before the sons 
 of men. Even a.s the hart panteth after the water 
 brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My 
 soul thirsteth for God, for the living God ; O when 
 shall 1 come and appear before God," Psalmxlii. 1. 
 Certainly there is nothing so bitter and sharp in this 
 life, but the contemplation of the joys of heaven will 
 sweeten and allay ; for in heaven there is neither 
 <$eath nor mourning, weariness nor weakness, famine 
 
Ofc, DAY OF JUBILEE 10,5 
 
 nor thirst, but content and happiness in the highest 
 degree, as it is written, " Eye hath not seen, nor 
 ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of 
 man, the things which God has prepared for them 
 that love and fear him. Therefore let no man that 
 hath lived uprightly, be staggered at any tribula- 
 tions and misfortunes or fear to die, or doubt of the 
 joys of heaven ; for as we are all born, so we must 
 all die, and then the joys of heaven will recom- 
 pence us for all our sufferings in this world, were 
 they ten thousand times more than any they have 
 been. And can any man if he rightly considers, 
 think to get that by favour, which God himself only 
 has by nature, immortality ! No, we must change 
 this life, and this mortality must put on immortality ; 
 for no man or woman can expect «to gain so great 
 an happiness by being negligent and putting off his 
 repentance from day to day, even to old age, or a 
 death-bed repentance, which is very uncertain 
 whether it will be acceptable or not in the last hour ; 
 for God loves the early penitent, often putting young 
 persons in mind, To remember their Creator in the 
 days of their youth. 
 
 Let me advise you then to enter early into the 
 church militant, and put on the whole armour of 
 God, to resist the temptations of Satan, that in 
 the end ye may receive the crown, for the godly 
 are as warriors, in skirmishes daily in this life ; 
 but in that to come they shall be crowned con- 
 querors. Now they suffer trouble, though their 
 life be hid with Christ in God ; but when Christ 
 shall appear, they shall also appear with him in glo- 
 ry]; according to that which was pronounced by a 
 voice from heaven, Rev. xiv. 13. " Write, Blessed 
 
 (5.) o 
 
106 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 are the dead which die in the Lord, even so saith 
 the spirit, for they rest from their labours, and their 
 works follow them." 
 
 Consider then, what joy will the soul receive 
 ia that day, when it is presented in the presence of 
 so great a multitude before the throne of the Holy 
 and ever blessed Trinity, where shall be exposed to 
 the view of all the host of heaven, all thy virtuous 
 deeds and innocency of life ? and for thy farther 
 comfort, as the wicked shall be vexed with horri- 
 ble fear, when they shall thus see the righteous 
 staftd in great boldness, " so shall the righteous go 
 forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that 
 have transgressed God's will and holy law," Isai lxvi. 
 24. And then looking back upon the dangers they 
 have been in, and wherein other men are now, their 
 joy shall be the greater, when they see what mise- 
 ries they are cleared from, and what happiness they 
 enjoy. 
 
 In earth no joy or happiness so great, but will 
 breed a satiety, and we grow weary of them, for 
 novelty and change is grafted in our very natures. 
 But we shall never be satisfied with the joys of hea- 
 ven, for the " Tree of Life bears twelve sorts of 
 fruits, bearing fruit every month, twelve manner 
 of fruits," Rev. xxi. Which is aptly applied to the 
 diversity of joys, those that strive to enter at the 
 strait gate, and take heaven by violence, shall enjoy 
 as a reward of their labour and sufferings : So that 
 you see, that there is a continual change and variety of 
 delights and joys still pleasing the minds, and ra- 
 vishing the senses with immortal pleasures. 
 
 And thus I have shewed you the joys of heaven 
 as they are revealed to us, or as our imagination 
 
OR. DAY OF JUBILEE. 107 
 
 can reach them, though in reality they wonderfully 
 surpass all that can be said of them, as much as the 
 sim in its lustre, does the smallest glimmering star ; 
 for no tongue is able to express to them as they are 
 in themselves, till the party who would do it, comes 
 to the possession of them, which makes us more 
 eager after them, because we shall not be long with- 
 out them. For the time of this life is but short, and 
 the time of thy trial in this world is but in a manner 
 a moment ; if our time here should be a thousand 
 years, what is it to one day in heaven, which has no 
 night. 
 
 And as the torments of hell are endless, so are 
 the joys of heaven beyond all time, and as they are 
 remediless, (for out of hell there is no redemption) 
 so are the joys of the blessed above, without any 
 change or alteration. 
 
 Thus have I shewed you the joys of the kingdom 
 
 of heaven in part, but their fulness I cannot utter, 
 
 nor you conceive, we can only guess at them. St. 
 
 Paul being wrapped up in the third heaven, saw 
 
 and heard things unutterable, himself seems not to 
 
 be able to reveal what he saw there and heard, and 
 
 therefore in a manner he passeth it over in a silence, 
 
 as a thing unlawful for him to speak, or as some 
 
 translations have it, beyond man's utterance : for 
 
 all the learned men in the world, are not able to 
 
 give a lively description of the joys of heaven, as in 
 
 themselves they really are, for no mortal eye has 
 
 seen them, or heart can conceive them. Then how 
 
 can any tongue declare them in their full perfections. 
 
 But by what I have already said, it is sufficient for 
 
 our instruction and comfort, for things that are not 
 
 revealed, belong to God alone. If I should fill your 
 
108 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 heads with my own devices and imaginations, as 
 many do, I should but delude you, therefore be not 
 any of you desirous to know more than is fit and 
 convenient ; for when we have said all we know, no 
 man can fully express the truth of these joys. But 
 that which we do know, let it be instructive, and 
 let us leave off to search where God will give no 
 understanding : hidden they are and unknown, that 
 we might the more earnestly desire them, for known 
 things he gives out of love : yet here is enough re- 
 vealed unto us, to enflame our love, and raise our 
 desires to long and wish for them, and so conse- 
 quently to spur us on in using the means, whereby 
 we may attain to them in his good time, who has 
 provided those joys for all that love and fear him, 
 walking uprightly according to his word, and in a 
 ready obedience to his holy commandments, the 
 consideration of which might be sufficient to con- 
 iirm us that there be not in any of us an unfaithful 
 heart, to depart from the living God : beside, who 
 in his senses would deprive himself of these joys, if 
 there were no other, but such as our own minds 
 might imagine, or our own heart conceive. 
 
 The profitable instructions thereof that hence 
 may arise, are more than I can utter, yet give me 
 leave to recite some for your satisfaction ; for when 
 it pleased God, I wrote this for your good, it was 
 with comfort, and therefore I doubt not but that 
 you that hear it, will hear it also with comfort : for 
 1 myself who perhaps have searched more than any 
 of you, am at a loss to declare the wonderful Working 
 of the Lord. 
 
 First, Let us learn to grow out of love with the 
 present world, and with the transitory pleasures and 
 
E T® • - ' ' ■ ■■• ■ ' ' i : ' 
 
• /.."./ ',,/,'',• ,'/.'/,'/',•/' eti&Unf u' '■ ' 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 109 
 
 profits of the same, which will stand us in no stead 
 at the last day, so that we may prepare our journey 
 to our long and wished home, and to those houses 
 and heavenly habitations whose leases shall never 
 expire, to our heavenly Canaan, and to this new 
 and most beautiful Jerusalem. And though ne- 
 cessity and the needs of nature require us to use 
 many things, yet let us be careful to use them, 
 as not to abuse them, nor ourselves in the use of 
 them. Let us be modest in all our conversation, 
 not toiling ourselves to heap up riches, when we 
 know not who shall gather them up after us ; or 
 if we did, 'it would nothing avail us in the hour of 
 death, much less in the day of judgment. But let 
 us labour to fight the good fight, that so finishing our 
 course, we may with joy lay down this mortal life, in 
 exchange for that life which is immortal. 
 
 Howbeit, men for the most part are so bewitched 
 with the pleasures of this world, that no exhorta- 
 tion will prevail to draw our minds from thence, 
 which thing may be lively represented by a para- 
 rable of a certain commonwealth, who were accus- 
 tomed to choose their king from amongst the 
 poorest sort of people, and advance him to great 
 honour for a time, and then to despoil him of his 
 felicity, and banish him naked into an island of a 
 far country where he lived in great misery, which 
 another king looking into, [ took care to prevent; 
 against it came to be his own turn, by sending hi. 
 fore hand a great treasure into that island, whereunto 
 he was daily in danger of being sent; which when it 
 happened, he went to that island with joy, be- 
 cause his treasure was there before him, and waa 
 received with great honour and respect. 
 
110 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 Now this city or commonwealth, is this preseat 
 world, which advauceth poor men to authority ; 
 that is, such as come naked into this world, and 
 on a sudden when they least look for it, pulls 
 them down, and sends them naked into their 
 graves ; when bringing not treasure with them, they 
 can expect no favour but eternal misery. 
 
 The wise king who prevents this calamity, is 
 every one who in this life, doth endeavour to lay 
 up treasure in heaven against the day of their death ; 
 *at which time if their good deeds follow them, 
 then shall they be happy men : but if they come 
 without oil in their lamps, then there is nothing for 
 them to expect, but this terrible sentence, Depart 
 from me, I know ye not. 
 
 The sum of money is not so much our good 
 deeds, as the forgiveness of our manifold offences, 
 and the amendment of our sinful lives. That 
 which we are so greatly in love withal, the apostle 
 adviseth us against, " Love not the world, neither 
 the things that are in the world," 1 John ii. and he 
 gives us this reason for it, because the world posset \h 
 away : But he that doth the will of God abideth for 
 ever. 
 
 The joys of heaven, and the desires of the world, 
 are directly opposites ; worldly pleasures hinder us 
 from mounting up so high, wherein we may be 
 likened to the grasshopper, who liveth and dieth 
 in the same ground, it hath wings, and hoppeth up 
 a little, but presently falleth down again to the 
 ground ; so many of us have good motions unto 
 goodliness, but we return strait to our old affections 
 to this world, as though all our portion were only in 
 this life. 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. Ill 
 
 The fowls that feed grossly, never fly high, and 
 they who feed their hearts with things below, can- 
 not have their affections above. But as the ox is 
 fatted in the pasture, and the bird singeth sweetly, 
 and feedeth without fear, and suddenly the one is dri- 
 ven to the slaughter, and the other is taken in the 
 snare ; so they that be worldly minded, are lulled 
 asleep in security, until the time that death over- 
 takes them, and endless destruction overwhelms 
 them : But where is that man who can say with the 
 apostle, " I desire to be dissolved, and to be with 
 Christ, which is best of all : for they that say such 
 things, declare plaixily that they seek a country,"' 
 Heb. xi. 16. " desiring a better country than is to be 
 found in this world : that is, a heavenly country, 
 and for them hath God prepared a city." Heb xiii. 
 14, for here [we have no continuing city, no conti- 
 nuing habitation. If we desire them to attain this 
 heavenly place, we must forsake this earthly taber- 
 nacle. Christ himself was not free from affliction, 
 for he cried out, My God, my God, ivhy hast thou 
 forsaken me. We must go first to Mount Calvary, 
 before we can come to Mount Olivet. Our graves 
 are but so many folds, which death brings us unto, 
 and keep our bodies till the general day of the re- 
 surrection ; for death is but a door of entrance to 
 the crown of glory. Woe be to you, saith Christ, 
 that now laugh, for you shall weep, and therefore 
 happy shall they be in another world, who in a good 
 cause suffered wrongs, committing themselves unto 
 God. 
 
 The time of heavenly joys is in scripture, com- 
 pared to the harvest, and what care doth eveiy man 
 take to provide the best seed, that their harvest 
 
112 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 might prove good ? The Psalmist saith, " Tliey shall 
 reap in joy, and whoso goeth on his way weeping, and 
 beareth good seed, shall come and bring his sheaves 
 with him." Therefore let me exhort you as the 
 apostle doth, Gal. vi. 7. " Be not deceived, God is 
 not mocked ; for whatsoever a man soweth, that 
 shall he also reap : for he that soweth to the flesh, 
 shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that 
 soweth to the spirit, shall of the spirit reap life ever- 
 lasting :" So that you see that' such as our seed is, 
 such shall be our harvest. The date of this life is 
 but short, but the remembrance of a life well led, 
 will be a comfort to us for ever ; and in the end of 
 time, prove an endless harvest to supply us with a 
 blessed crop of joy and pleasure, still gathering, still 
 increasing, never diminishing, but springing to life 
 and immortality. 
 
 Be careful then in this, and abstain from fleshly 
 lusts; bridle and keep them under, for they war 
 against the spirit. The last thing in the aforesaid 
 chapter is that there shall enter into this heavenly 
 Jerusalem no unclean thing. And as the pro- 
 phesy of Zachariah, xiv. 21. In that day there shall 
 be no more the Canaanite, in the house of the Lord 
 of Hosts. Now the Canaanites were a lewd 
 people, and for the same were driven out of the 
 land ; and if they were not worthy to dwell on earth, 
 i«uch less shall they be worthy to be received into 
 heaven. " Dearly beloved," saith the apostle St. 
 Peter, 1 Epist. ii. 11. "abstain from fleshly lusts, 
 bridle them, keep them under, for they war against 
 the soul." Col. iii. 1. " If then ye be risen with Christ, 
 seek those things which are above, where Christ 
 sitteth at the right hand of God ; Set your affections 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 113 
 
 on things above, and not on things on the earth, and 
 mortify your immoderate affections and evil concu- 
 piscence," remember this peremptory word, " No 
 unclean thing shall enter into the kingdom of hea- 
 ven, but blessed are the pure iii heart, for they 
 shall see God/' Let us then cleanse ourselves from 
 all filthiness and defilements of the flesh and spirit, 
 and grow up into full holiness in the fear of God, 
 for they that thus do his will shall enter into the 
 New Jerusalem, and shall have a right to the Tree 
 of Life. But without are dogs, and all uno-lean 
 persons, Rev. xxii. 41. And let us work out our 
 salvation with fear and trembling, being desirous 
 to receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken ; let 
 us pray for grace to serve God, that we may please 
 him with reverence and godly fear. And seeing 
 we have precious promises, 2 Pet. i. 4. and that 
 more sure than the heaven and the earth, " Let us 
 cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and 
 spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God ; for 
 as they that thus do his will, shall enter through the 
 gates into the city, and their right shall be to the 
 Tree of Life, so without are dogs and all unclean 
 persons ;" let not then this my last exhortation be 
 forgotten among you, Enter in at the strait gate ; 
 for it is the wide gate and broad way that leadefh 
 to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat ; 
 because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that 
 leadeth to life, and few there be that find it. 
 
 Now I may add unto those, one of the greatest 
 joys of all, and that is God's mercy, which is evident 
 to us in this life, as well as the life to come, for 
 without that, no man can enter into that place where 
 true joys are to be found ; for in the strictness of 
 
 (5.) ' p 
 
114 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 his justice, our sins would debar us of all the Hap- 
 piness we hope for in heaven, our first parents being 
 by Gods just anger, and according to their desert, 
 cast out of paradise, and an angel set with a sword 
 drawn to keep the way, that no flesh should return 
 thither, unless by God's mercy we enter through 
 the strait gate. Which is called the rich mercy of 
 God, because no treasure is comparable to it, he 
 being a God of long-suffering, patience and forbear- 
 ance : A God slow to anger, and of great loving 
 kindness, not willing any should perish, but that all 
 should be saved : and because the tongue of man 
 cannot speak it, let angels proclaim it, as we read 
 Luke ii. 14. Glory be to God in the highest, and 
 on earth jjeace, good will towards men. 
 
 Let every man and woman then take care how 
 they abuse this mercy, which can only open the 
 gates of heaven to them, lest when they stand in 
 need of it, his severe justice takes place to their 
 destruction. 
 
 And now I come, in the last place, to shew you 
 the right way of dying well, which brings all the 
 joy and happiness I have been mentioning, as a re- 
 com pence for our travail and labour in this world. 
 
 First, By the virtue of Christ's death, death 
 ceaseth to be any more a terror or affrightment to 
 us, but appears as a friend, and opens the door to 
 let the soul into a happy eternity, he being the 
 key of our graves, hath opened the kingdom of 
 heaven to all believers. For death is only terrible, 
 when it is joined with God's wrath and indignation 
 against sinners, and w< are not defended with the 
 shield of faith, when he approacheth ; for in dying 
 • we should rejoice in the Lord, since the corruption 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 115 
 
 of our nature is thereby abolished, and our sancti- 
 fication thereby accomplished ; consider then what 
 happiness it is to see the glory of God's majesty face 
 to face, and to abide with God and the holy angels 
 for ever. Which being assured of in our consciences, 
 let death come when it will, we shall rest contented, 
 whether we wake or sleep, or whatever we do, let 
 us bear in mind the noise of the trumpet, Arise ye 
 dead, and come to judgment, knowing that the power 
 of death lies in our sins ; and therefore to weaken 
 the power of death, let us repent of our sins, amend 
 our lives, and rely wholly upon the mercies of God, 
 that we may with comfort say with St. Paul, I live 
 not, but Christ liveth in me. 
 
 By death then you see, there is a removal of 
 present miseries, and by it, all miseries that may 
 happen are prevented ; for let death seize us when " 
 it please, we shall still remain in the covenant, and 
 at last be taken up into everlasting life. But it is 
 too late to begin to live well, when we^ must of 
 necessity die, and depart out of this life. Can any 
 man think that God will be content, that we should 
 lay our old and rotten bodies upon his altar, when 
 we have lived all our youthful time in revelling and 
 wantonness! What was the reason that Christ 
 loved his disciple John better than any of the others, 
 but because he came to him in his youth. God will 
 not be our staff in our age, if we do not serve him 
 in our youth ; Solomon the wisest of all men, ad- 
 viseth us, to Remember our Creator in the days of 
 our youth. We must not think to come into the 
 world, as Cato did in the theatre, only to go out of 
 it again ; or to imagine that the world was made 
 for man, as the sea was for the leviathan, to take 
 
IIG THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 his pleasure in ; no, we must strive to observe God's 
 commandments, which will bring rest to our souls. 
 That man can never shoot well, who has not his 
 eye upon the mark, neither can a man live well, 
 that hath not his mind upon the day of his death, 
 and we must remember that our bodies when they 
 are in the earth, are but like seed that is sown, for 
 they shall rise again. " When the trumpet shall 
 blow, it shall be both loud and shrill : no car but 
 shall hear the sound, the dampness of the earth shall 
 not hinder it, nor the depth of the grave excuse us ;" 
 No place though never so remote, shall hinder this 
 sound, for it shall be universal, and in every corner 
 of the earth shall this trumpet be heard. The Lord 
 calls to man by his prophet Isaiah, saying, Earth, 
 earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord, to put us 
 in mind, we are but earth. But St. Paul saith, Oar 
 bodies shall he changed at the last day, even in the 
 twinkling of an eye, and then we shall have a re- 
 surrection. First, Of our bodies from the grave. 
 And Secondly, Of our souls from sin. Notwith- 
 standing the earth devoured some, as it did Corah, 
 Dathan and Abiram, and yet they must come to 
 judgment. It is a divine work, and is past our 
 understanding ; therefore let us rather admire God's 
 infinite wisdom and goodness, than be too curious 
 to search into them, For our corruption, shall put 
 on incorruption, and pur mortal bodies, shall put on 
 ?mmorlality, though, we have lain a long time in the 
 grave, mouldering and consuming away. 
 
 We all know when we have set a root in the 
 ground, it must lie all the winter, and it is seem- 
 ingly dead, but in the spring it revives by virtue of 
 the sun, and so will it be with us at the day of oar 
 
Ott, DAY OF JUBILEE. 117 
 
 resurrection ; therefore let us endeavour while we 
 live here on earth, that we be found as white as 
 the snow in Salmon, and clothed with the robes 
 of Christ's righteousness. We are at best but like 
 a painted wall, one winter's storm quite defaces 
 the beauty of it ; so one blast of death carries us 
 quite away to the grave and earth again ; therefore 
 saith the prophet, " The dust shall return to the 
 earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God 
 that gave it," Eccl. xii. 7. 
 
 Seeing then we must all die, and that death is 
 only terrible to the wicked, it is our own fault to 
 delay and put off our repentance, till it is too late ; 
 let us do as St. Paul did, who joyfnlly cried out, 
 O death where is thy stino- ? O grave where is 
 thy victory ? Certainly the meditation of death 
 makes it familiar to us, for otherwise the thoughts 
 of death will ,so affrighten and astonish us, that our 
 minds will be disordered. 
 
 That man must die, common experience shews, 
 scarce a night passes but we meet one or other 
 going to their long home, and the sound of the bell 
 daily informs us, some one or other is departed out 
 of this life, which is so uncertain that it is often 
 compared to things of momentary duration ; as a 
 span long, a vapour, a shadow, the grass that 
 withereth, and a flower that fadeth. Death stealeth 
 on us unawares, and our lying down at night, and 
 rising in the morning, is an emblem of death and 
 the resurrection. Let us not then be like the rich 
 fool in the gospel, who promised himself the en- 
 joyment of great riches, and many years of hap- 
 piness, whose soul was that very night required 
 of him, and death fatally disappointed him of all 
 
118 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 * 
 
 his expectations. Let every man and woman then 
 be continually on the watch, so that when death 
 comes, we may be ready to embrace it, knowing 
 that we shall rise again to the life immortal. 
 
 Let ns not then put off the thoughts of dying, 
 as Felix did St. Paul, saying, J will hear thee an- 
 other time. The prodigal must forsake his sins of 
 wantonness, as Zaccheus did, who came down 
 hastily, and received Christ joyfully. We must 
 not defer time, but must with Zaccheus make 
 Christ overseer, who said, Behold Lord half of my 
 goods 1 give to the poor, and if I have done wrong 
 to any, 1 will restore him four fold. God doth 
 not regard the extension, but the intention, not 
 only the tongue, but the heart. We must put the 
 sword to the throat of sins, and cut them off as 
 Phineas pierced Zimri and Cosbi, through and 
 through. We must not have our ljeloved Delilah 
 sins, and say as Naaman did, The Lord be merciful 
 to me a sinner, but pray with holy David, The Lord 
 be merciful to me a sinner, cleanse my soul from secret 
 sins, from my sins of omission, and sins of commis- 
 sion, which if not repented of, we shall be cast 
 into hell for ever. What would Dives have given 
 that he might have been sent to his five brethren ; 
 but Abraham told him, it could not be, if they 
 would not believe Moses and the prophets, neither 
 would they believe, though one rose from the dead. 
 
 It was Jerusalem's sin, that they remembered not 
 their latter end, and our Saviour wept over it, 
 because they would not believe, and consider the 
 things that belonged to its peace. Death comes 
 swiftly, not on foot, but on horseback, and on a 
 pale horse : delays in this case are dangerous, be- 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 119 
 
 ^nuse our time in this world is uncertain. Let us 
 therefore remember our death, and leave sin, that 
 sin may not leave us in the grave : for if it does, 
 a severe judgment will take hold of us at the resur- 
 rection. 
 
 A dying man must not so much fix his mind on 
 the pangs of death, as on that blessed estate of eter- 
 nal life enjoyed after death, which will appear First, 
 In the examination of our hearts and ways. Secondly, 
 In the confession of our sins. And Thirdly, In 
 begging paid on, so that we may be reconciled to 
 God in Jesus Christ. 
 
 We must look upon death in the glass of the 
 gospel, as a sweet sleep, and not in the glass of the 
 law, as a pit, full to destruction. For death of itseli 
 is nothing, it is our ill consciences that makes us 
 afraid. The very sighs, sobs, and groans, of a repent- 
 ing and believing heart, are effectual prayers before 
 God ; such as, Lord have mercy on me, Christ have 
 mercy on me, Lord have mercy on me. Remember 
 the last words of a dying man mentioned in the holy 
 scripture, O Lord I have waited for thy salvation : 
 Father into thy hands I commit my spirit, Lord Jesus 
 receive my soul. And then will our Saviour meet us, 
 and say, Come ye blessed of my Father, receive the 
 kingdom prepared for you, from the beginning of the 
 world. 
 
 St. Paul saith, No man liveth to'fiimself and no 
 mandiethto himself for whether we live, we live Unto 
 the Lord, and whether ive die, we die unto the Lord; 
 Whether we live or die, therefore, we are the Lord's. 
 Which words teach us, that in the pangs of death 
 we should resign ourselves unto the Lord ; as David 
 
120 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 did, saying, Into thy hands I commend my spirit, 
 knowing that God would receive him. 
 
 The consideration of winch ought to raise our 
 souls inflamed with divine love, far above the level 
 of this world, and give them the wings of an eagle, 
 that they may fly up to heaven in contemplation of 
 those joys they sigh for in this vale of tears, and by 
 faith stedfastly to behold their Blessed Redeemer, 
 sitting at the right hand of God, obtaining for us a 
 crown of life and immortal glory. 
 
 Therefore I entreat you to conclude with this fol- 
 lowing prayer, which is the substance of what I have 
 already written, " That God Almighty may guide 
 both our hearts and minds, to pray for a pious disso- 
 lution out of this life, whensoever it shall happen. 
 
 " O that men would therefore praise the Lord, who 
 does such wonderful things for the children of men, 
 which the tongues of men and angels are not able 
 to express, and are ever beyond our imaginations 
 till we come to enjoy them in full glory, through 
 Jesus Christ. Amen. 
 
 A Godly Prayer to the effect of the foregoing Ser- 
 >>ion, proper for any Man or Woman on their 
 Death bed. 
 
 <D 
 
 ALMIGHTY and Everlasting God, from 
 whose face the heaven and the earth fled away, 
 lead me into the way that I must go, so that I may 
 in the end find my Saviour Jesus Christ, who sit- 
 teth on the white throne, and be thought worthy to 
 appear in the presence of the Bridegroom. 1 am 
 weary of the wicked and sinful world, and desire 
 to be with Christ which is best of all. O Lord, 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE, 121 
 
 Jesus, who knowest how long- I have to live, and the 
 hour of my death : my days are in thy hand, for 
 thou hast made my days but as a span loug, and 
 my age is nothing unto thee, therefore teach me so 
 to.number my days, that I may apply my heart unto 
 wisdom. But above all, deliver me from the body 
 ofodeath, which the very thought of makes my soul 
 to tremble, and lift up my thoughts on high, so that 
 I may sing praises and thanks to thee in thy hea- 
 venly choir, with angels and saints. 
 
 I desire to go from darkness to light, from pain to 
 pleasure, from the troubles of this life to eternal rest. 
 'Come then, Lord Jesus, come quickly, and dissolve 
 me from this body, that now longeth to be with thee. 
 A little before thy death, thou dylst pray thy father, 
 saying, " Father, these whom thou hast given me, 
 I will that they shall be where I am, that they may be 
 with me, and see my glory which thou hast given 
 me; for thou hast loved me before the foundation 
 of the world ;" therefore, O Lord Jesus, be present 
 at my right hand, when I die, and let not the devil 
 have any advantage over me, nor the wicked ap- 
 proach to hurt me, but say to my poor soul, Soul be 
 of good comfort, thy sins are forgiven thee, This day 
 thou shalt be ivith me in paradise* And at the re-, 
 surrection of the saints, O sweet Jesus, raise my 
 body to life eternal, so that I may with joy appear 
 before thee, my Judge and Advocate, and hear that 
 comfortable sentence, Come thou blessed of my Father, 
 possess the kingdom prepared for thee from the foun- 
 dation of the world. O come then Lord Jesus, come 
 quickly from thy kingdom of grace, to thy kingdom 
 of glory ; and not for any merits of mine, but for 
 the sake of him, who is the Son of thy love, and 
 
 (6.) Q 
 
122 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 Lamb of thy bosom ; to whom with the Father and 
 Holy Ghost, be ascribed all honour, glory, power, 
 might, majesty, and thanksgiving from me, and all 
 holy men and women, now and for evermore. 
 
 A Morning prayer for a private person, or family. 
 
 LORD Jesus, Judge of all men, whether 
 alive or dead, send thy Holy Spirit to instruct 
 me, tlgat I may daily live in expectation of thy 
 coming in glory, and ever be mindful of the last 
 day of my life, as the happiest day of my redemp- 
 tion, expecting thy coming as my Saviour, Advo- 
 cate, Surety, and Bishop of my soul. But what 
 will that avail me, except thou, O my Saviour, keep 
 and guide me, that I might avoid those horrible 
 vices, which in this sinful and degenerate age, do 
 reign amongst the wicked and ungodly ; such is 
 drunkenness, adultery and covetousness, being cer- 
 tain that no such shall inherit the kingdom of God. 
 And that I set not my affections too much on things 
 of this world, as riches, profits, and preferments, 
 with the pleasure of which our hearts are often 
 carried away, so that we seldom come to a serious 
 contemplation of things belonging to our peace and 
 future happiness : but give me grace to seek after 
 Christ, and him crucified, so that witli St. Paul, I 
 may desire to be dissolved, and be with Christ; in 
 comparison of which, I count all things but loss for 
 the excellency of Christ Jesus, my Lord. 
 
 Lead me, O good, O gracious, and merciful Lord 
 and Saviour, and guide me, I beseech thee, in the 
 way of all truth and righteousness, and so govern 
 '11 my thoughts, words, and actions this day, that 1 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 
 
 may not wilfully commit any thing that might offend 
 thy divine majesty, and that all my doings may be 
 to thy glory, the good of thy church, and the dis- 
 charge of my duty in this life ; in order to which, 
 deliver me from all temptations and afflictions of 
 this sinful world, and from all mine enemies both 
 public and private, and from all the temptations of 
 the devil, the deadly enemy of mankind. But above, 
 all, inflame my heart and affections, with a fervent 
 zeal of thy sacred word, that I may embrace thy 
 holy religion, and know thy blessed will, and walk 
 in thy ways ; and to do which, strengthen me with 
 thy Holy Spirit, boldly and constantly to profess the 
 honour and service of thy great and holy name, lest 
 at any time through the frailty of the flesh, or the 
 corruptions of my own nature,~or the temptations of 
 the devil, I fall off from my duty to thee : O Lord 
 strengthen my weak faith through Jesus Christ, 
 kindle it more and more in fervency and love 
 towards thee, and in love and charity towards all 
 men. Suffer me not, O Jesus, to receive thy grace 
 any more in vain, but grant that it may prove as 
 good seed sown in fertile ground, so that I may 
 bring forth th« fruits of repentance in holiness of 
 life and conversation, to thy honour and glory, and 
 the future good of my soul and body, and therein 
 give me a contented mind with my condition, and 
 all other blessings, which thou, O Lord God, of thy 
 abundant goodness in mercy hast bestowed on me, 
 that . I may use them soberly as becomes me, and 
 be truly thankful to thee for them ; therefore grant 
 me patience in all my troubles and afflictions which 
 may daily happen unto me. And above all, O dear 
 Father, grant that I do not repine at thy fatherly 
 
124 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 correction, J well knowing that vengeance is thine, 
 and that in due season, thou wilt repay it. 
 
 Keep, O Good Father my wandering will and 
 desires from all evil thoughts, my tongue from pro- 
 fane cursing and swearing, evil-speaking, lying 
 and slandering, and my body in temperance, sober- 
 ness, and chastity, not coveting nor desiring other 
 mens goods, but that I may learn and labour truly 
 to get my own living. Let all my love, faith, 
 hope, delight and confidence be only upon thee ; 
 and qpen my heart to have pity and compassion 
 upon all the poor distressed members of Jesus 
 Christ, whether they be afflicted in body or mind- 
 Give me the gift of chastity, that I possess my ves- 
 sel, which is the temple of the Holy Ghost, with 
 sanctification, and not in the lusts of the flesh as the 
 wicked and foolish do, who know not God, nor 
 Jesus Christ whom he has sent ; and grant that 
 every day more and more, I may become sorrow- 
 ful for my sins and transgressions that are past, and 
 which;! have so wilfully committed. Accept, O 
 Lord, of these our petitions, as also of our praises 
 aud thanksgivings, for all thy mercies and benefits 
 which thou in thy tender mercy hast from time to 
 time bestowed upon me. Let thy mighty hand 
 and outstretched arm, O Lord, be still my defence, 
 and thy mercy in Jesus Christ be # my salvation. 
 Thy Holy Word my instruction, and thy Holy 
 Spirit my comfort all my days, so that I may con 
 tinually perform that which thou hast commanded 
 nif, and daily live in the fear of thy holy name, to 
 the intent ^that I may die in thy favour, and then 
 ) i&e to life immortal with my Lord Jesus Christ, to 
 dwell with him in heaven for evermore, which is the 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 125 
 
 only happiness I hope and pray for, not for any of 
 my own merits, but for the merits and mercy of 
 Jesus Christ, who came into the world to suffer 
 death upon the cross to save mankind, and who 
 hath taught us thus to pray, Our Father, ivhich art 
 in heaven, Sfc. 
 
 An Evening Prayer for a private person, or 
 Family. 
 
 MOST Great and Mighty Lord God, and mer- 
 ciful Father, I a poor wretched and undone 
 sinful wretch, return unto thee praises and thanks, 
 tor all thy goodness which thou hast been pleased 
 from time to time to bestow upon me, begging of 
 thee to hear my supplications, and to grant my re- 
 quests in what shall seem to thee convenient foi 
 me, thou knowing my necessities better than I that 
 ask; who have been negligent of every good work, 
 but run headlong into every thing that is evil, yet if 
 thou please to wash me with one drop of my Lord 
 and Saviour's precious blood, it is I know for certainty, 
 sufficient to make my sins, though as red as scarlet, 
 to become as white as snow. Oh ! Let not my 
 own sins, nor the sins of my forefathers ever be num- 
 bered up against me, but be thou my God, and 
 let me be thy servant. Forgive me, O good Father, 
 all the sins that I have committed from day to day 
 against thy divine majesty, and suffer me not, O 
 Lord, to offend thee any more, that neither sin nor 
 Satan, nor any unruly passion may any longer reign 
 in my mortal body, for T confess Avith shame and 
 confusion of face, I have heretofore done wickedly, 
 and have broken all thy commandments, for which 
 
126 THE LAST GREAT ASSIZE, 
 
 thou mightestin justice have cast me into hell. But 
 thou, O God, who art gracious and merciful, slow 
 to anger, and of great kindness, I hope will forgive 
 line all that is past, and pour upon me the holy spirit 
 of wisdom, that it may be a lanthom to my feet, and 
 a light to my steps. Increase my faith, O heavenly 
 Father, that I do not swerve from thy word at any 
 time, but increase in me hope and love, shew 
 thy mercy upon me, and enlighten the natural 
 Uindness and darkness of my heart, by thy hea- 
 venly grace, that I may daily be renewed by the 
 same, and be pleased to purge the grossness of my 
 understanding, which hath been choaked with the 
 cares and pleasures of this world ; so that I may 
 profitably read, hear, and understand thy will, be- 
 lieve and practice the same in my life and conversa- 
 tion ; all carnal desires and lusts of the flesh being 
 mortified in me : But most chiefly I intreat thee, O 
 Lord, to defend me against the temptations and 
 subtile deceit of the devil, who goes daily about, 
 seeking whom he may devour. And should I happen 
 to fall into sin, through the frailty of my nature, I 
 beseech thee to give me true repentance, that I may 
 amend my life for the time to come, and become 
 truly religious, and increase in all holiness and godli- 
 ness of living, to the praise and glory of thy holy 
 name. Finally, for as much as it has pleased thee 
 to make the night for man to rest, and ordained for 
 him the day to follow his honest labour and vocation, 
 grant, O heavenly Father, that I may so enjoy ray 
 rest, that my soul may watch, like the wise virgin, 
 with the oil of faith in my heart, for the second com- 
 ing of my Lord Jesus Christ, and that I may fully 
 set ray mind to love, fear, and to rest in thee : And 
 then, O Lord, awaken me, that I may behold tl 
 
OR, DAY OF JUBILEE. 127 
 
 with comfort, so that when I have run the short race 
 of this mortal life, thou mayest be pleased to sum- 
 mon me to partake of a better in thy kingdom, 
 where I shall for ever remain with thee in glory, 
 through Jesus Christ our Saviour. In whose name 
 I beg all these graces, in that short but excellent 
 form of prayer, which Christ himself hath taught 
 saying, Our Father, which art in heaven, fyc. 
 
A CONTEMPLATION 
 
 UPON 
 
 Beatfi* 
 
 TT^EATH knocks as boldly at tbe rich man's door, 
 
 As at the meanest cottage of the poor : 
 It spares not old nor young, nor high nor low, 
 But all must yield to its unerring blow. 
 
 Both men andbeasts, fish, fowls, and trees that spring, 
 Must yield to death sent out by Christ our King. 
 ^Nothing on earth's more certain unto men. 
 Nor more uncertain how, or where, or when. 
 
 The sand runs in the glass, so runs our breath, 
 
 And every moment life runs nearer death. 
 
 Which if that men would once consider well, 
 
 Not knowing but the next might be their passing btlJ. 
 
 Thty would repent before it is too late, 
 And welcome death which sinners tremble at. 
 Whose trumpet warns, us and his warning past, 
 Like verdent grass, his scythe cuts down at last. 
 
 Though death is terrible to flesh and blood, 
 Yet it brings solid comfort to the good. 
 Their miseries and troubles out of date, 
 And unto life eternal, death's a gate. 
 
 To the ungodly, by the doom supernal, 
 Death is the door unto the death eternal. 
 Where they for ever shall be in fetters bound,' 
 And cry for mercy, which shall ne'er be found. 
 
 So all that shall be, are, or ever was, 
 To endless joy or pain, by death must pass. 
 His coming's must unsure, but come he will, 
 And when he comes, he never fails to kill. 
 
THE SHEPHERDS TENT: 
 
 OR, A FOLD 
 
 FOR 
 
 CHRIST'S SHEEP 
 
 Canticles i. 7, 8. 
 
 7. Tell me (O thou whom my soul loveth) where thou fcedesl ; 
 where thoumakcst thy flock to rest at noon, for why should 
 I he as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions. 
 
 S. If thou knowest not, O thou fairest amongst women, go thy 
 way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids be- 
 side the shepherd's tent. 
 
 "TJD^EFORE I enter opon the text, I shall say 
 **aJ something' concerning the order of placing- this 
 book, the title of it, and the matter therein contained. 
 As for the order, in likeness, as there were three 
 degrees in the material temple built by Solomon, 
 The First, For the People, The Second, For the 
 Priests and Levites, And the Third, The Sanctum 
 Sanctorum, where none but the High Priest could 
 enter, and that but once a year. Even so in this 
 Spiritual Temple, he hath erected three Courts ; 
 First, An outward Court, which is the book of 
 Proverbs, easy to be understood by the People. 
 Secondly, Ecclesiastes, which leads men no further in 
 the way of godliness. And Thirdly, His excellent 
 book of Canticles, wherein, none but those that 
 
130 THE SHEPHERD'S TENT, 
 
 delight in heavenly mysteries, can see the affection 
 of* Christ Jesus towards his church, and every mem- 
 ber thereof; as also the church's love towards him, 
 and the benefit she reapeth by him. 
 
 Secondly, As for the titles of that book, It is the 
 Song of Songs, the most divine piece of all Solo- 
 mon's writings, wherein he decyphers out unto us 
 the most perfect love of Jesus Christ towards his 
 spouse, the church, who he makes in love with one 
 another, which may serve as to the book itself, and 
 therefore I shall proceed in the next place to the 
 consideration of the words of the text. 
 
 Tell me, O thou, whom my soul loveth. 
 
 In the beginning of this chapter the church speaks 
 to Christ, earnestly desiring to embrace him, pre- 
 ferring him before all the pleasures of this world : 
 in the third verse she expresseth her unworthiness to 
 embrace him. And in the fourth, she confesseth 
 her inability and want of power, and desireth to be 
 beautified with his graces, to become a mere spouse 
 for him whom her soul loveth. And in the fifth, 
 she owns her imperfection, confessing that though 
 by nature she is full of corruptions and pollutions, 
 yet being washed in Christ's blood, she is fair a?id 
 comely. And then she proceeds in the text, First, 
 That Jesus Christ would shew her where he feeds 
 his flock with his holy word, to the end that he 
 should feed her as he fed his flocks in former time. 
 And Secondly, where he covers, them from the 
 scorching heat of persecution. And Lastly, she 
 gives the reason, For ivhy should 1 be as one that 
 turnelh aside by the flocks of thy companions. 
 
OR, A FOLD FOR CHRIST'S SHEEP. 131 
 
 I'irst, The person 1o whom she seeks for direc- 
 tion in Christ Jesus, the Saviour and Redeemer of 
 his church, whom she describes, O thou, whom my 
 soul loveth, which love far exceeds all other love, 
 and is the best in the world. By which we may 
 see, with what affection every believer ought to love 
 Jesus Christ ; namely with the greatest affection of 
 love, that the soul of man is capable of; with a love 
 that enflames the heart with divine raptures ; for if 
 any thing in this world be beloved like unto him, 
 all is in vain ; he requires the whole heart when he 
 says, Son, give me thy heart. And therefore all 
 that will be his followers, must from the bottom of 
 their heart say, O thou, whom my soul loveth : nay, 
 so earnestly was the love of the church towards 
 Christ, that she cries out, Stay-me with flaggotis, 
 and comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love, 
 Cant. ii. 5. And St. Peter, whose love was so 
 great, that he died for Christ, being interrogated 
 whether he loved him or not ; with concern answer- 
 ed, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that 1 love thee. And 
 Mary in testimony of her love, washed his feet with 
 tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head ; 
 which so moved our blessed Saviour, that he hath 
 left upon record this testimony of her, that she loved 
 much ; for the Lord hath commanded us to love him 
 with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all 
 our might, Deut. vi. 5. He will not be satisfied 
 to be loved in part, but requires the whole man ; we 
 must say, with holy David, Whom have I in heaven 
 but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire 
 beside thee, Psalm lxxiii. 25. We cannot serve God 
 and Mammon, we must not part our love to the 
 
132 THE SHEPHERDS TENT, 
 
 world, and the lusts thereof, but Christ must have 
 it all. And the reasons are many, for 
 
 First, He is our spouse and husband, whose 
 name is the Lord of Hosts, Tsa. liv. 3, And the 
 Holy Ghost bids us be glad, and rejoice, and give 
 glory to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, 
 and his wife has made herself ready, Rev. xix. 7, 
 Now our service and worship of God is as it were 
 a marriage of our souls to Chnst, when in our bap- 
 tism we betroth ourselves to him as a husband, 
 entering into covenant with him to keep only to him 
 as long as we shall live. And as a man cannot 
 endure that another should have share in his wile's 
 love, so he is a jealous God, Exod. xx. 4. And 
 though death may, and does separate man and wife, 
 yet if we love Christ, we shall never be separated 
 from him, but our souls shall be for ever closely 
 united to him, and he Mill feed us here, and we 
 shall reign with him from everlasting to everlasting. 
 But if we shall be so false to him, to renounce our 
 baptismal vow, and give ourselves up to the sinful 
 lusts of the flesh, and the delusions thereof, he will 
 give us a bill of divorcement, and cast us off, as 
 shameless strumpets to the miseries of the world, 
 and eternal torments hereafter. 
 
 Secondly, We should love Christ above all, be- 
 cause he loved us first, We loved hiyn, because he 
 loved us first, 1 John iv. 19. for he loved us when 
 we were his enemies, and in love to us, he endured 
 poverty, distress, scorn, abuses, stripes, and even 
 death itself, whose bands he broke, so that he could 
 not be holdcn of death in the grave, or prevented 
 to ascend on high to draw us after him with the 
 
OR, A FOLD FOR CHRIST'S SHEEP. 133 
 
 cords of his love, where he sits at the right hand of 
 his Father, continually interceding for us, stopping 
 tine hand of his justice in mercy, from executing 
 justice on us for our evil deeds. And as the apostle 
 Paul witnesseth, You hath he quickened, who were 
 dead in sin, Eph. ii. 1. which he has sufficiently 
 manifested, In washing us from our sins in his own 
 hhed, Rev. i. 5. Greater love than this, can no 
 man shew, and shall not we love him again. Sup- 
 pose a man were taken captive by the Turks, where 
 he had been a long time kept in bondage, think ye 
 that he would not be very thankful to any man that 
 should redeem him from his slavery. Much more 
 we who are in bondage by the subtilty of Satan, 
 ought to return thanks for our redemption from 
 eternal torments, " by God who is rich in mercy, 
 for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when 
 we were dead in sin, he quickened us together with 
 Christ, by whose grace we are saved," Eph. ii. i. 
 " Hereby, (saith St. John,) we perceive the love of 
 God, because he laid down his life for us. In 
 whom (saith the apostle,) we have redemption 
 through his blood," Eph. i. 7. Which love being- 
 so very extraordinary, one would think to every 
 ingenuous mind, should constrain us to love him 
 again. 
 
 Thirdly, Because Christ Jesus is most excellent 
 in himself, and above ail things to be desired, as the 
 church saith, My Beloved is white and ruddy, the 
 chiefest among' ten thousand, and fairer than the 
 children of men. In the world we observe some 
 are beloved, because they are beautiful., rich, and 
 honourable, which prevails very much in this worhl 
 to draw men into their esteem ; but all ttiM & 
 
134 THE SHEPHERDS TENT, 
 
 nothing in respect of Christ, who is the store-house 
 of all mercies, the Lord of heaven and earth, and 
 the Son of God shining in grace and truth, Whose 
 countenance, as St. John tells us, outshone the bright- 
 ness of the sun. In short, he is in all things lovely 
 and desirable, as the soul of man can desire, and 
 therefore above all should he be beloved, who is 
 worthy to receive glory, and honour, and power, 
 and praise, and dominion both now and for ever- 
 more. 
 
 What then can we prefer to him that is worthy 
 of our love, and yet here many for a little earthly 
 dross reject him, making riches their God, and 
 doting upon the things of this world ; as the Gada- 
 renes, who preferred their hogs before the presence 
 of our Saviour ; or like Judas, who sold him for so 
 small a sum as thirty pence ; and love their pleasures 
 as Dives did, more than their own souls ; or like 
 the JBethlehemites, let him lie in the stable amongst 
 beasts, rather than afford him one corner in their 
 hearts : nay, we even see those that own him, break 
 covenant with him, and follow their own lusts, which 
 takes off their love to spiritual things ; they out- 
 wardly pretend indeed to love the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, but in their works they not only deny him, 
 but say, We will not have this man to rule over us. 
 Consider then, how would any man be content, that 
 his wife should say she loves him, and at the same 
 time setting her heart upon another man ? Much 
 more, how can we imagine God will take it at our 
 hands, and at the same time, we are dallying with 
 his enemies, the world, the lusts thereof. Certainly 
 he will withdraw the light of his amiable counte- 
 nance from such, and cease to shine with his grace 
 
OR, A FOLD FOR CHRIST'S SHEEP. 135 
 
 in their hearts, leaving them to stumble on dark 
 mountains, and lose their way to the heavenly 
 Canaan, for robbing him of that respect which is 
 due to him, and giving his honour to sin and Satan. 
 
 How then shall such as reject his love be able to 
 look him in the face, when he shall come in flames 
 of fire, accompanied with ten thousand of his saints 
 and angels, to convince all gainsayers, and render 
 vengeance on ungodly sinners. 
 
 St. Paul's love was so fervent, Tliat he accounted 
 all things but dross and dung; in comparison of the 
 love of Christ. It is impossible for a man to be 
 religious, that hath no delight in the word of God, 
 whch most men have no delight in now a days, and 
 therefore no love in Christ. David made the tes- 
 timonies of God his heritage, and esteemed them 
 above gold, yea, above fine gold. 
 
 Secondly, If we love God with all our hearts, we 
 shall love his ministers, and all those that he loves, 
 as St. John saith, Hereby we know that ive are passed 
 from death unto life, because ice love the brethren, 
 1 John iii. 14. And holy David declares publicly, 
 All my delight is in thy saints. It is our duty to 
 love all, but we must love the saints with a peculiar 
 and special love, as members of the same body with 
 us ; for those that do otherwise, are not in Christ, 
 but in the love of the world, and the love of Christ 
 is not in them, for the world loves her own. " But 
 because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen 
 you out of the world, therefore the world hateth 
 yon," John xv. 19. 
 
 Thirdly, If we love our Saviour, we must be 
 obedient to his laws ; for he saith, If ye love 
 me, keep my commandments, John xiy. 15. Little 
 
196 THE SHEPHERDS TENT, 
 
 obedience, less love ; and hearty obedience, hearty 
 Jove. And if we love onr Saviour as we ought, we 
 cannot endure to have him blasphemed, his word 
 despised, or his sabbath profaned, but it will grieve 
 us to the heart, and we will upon all occasion 
 defend his cause to the utmost of our power, as a 
 dutiful child will that of his father, or a faithful 
 servant the credit of his master. And furthermore, 
 it will make us be content to endure trial and per- 
 secution for his sake, even the loss of life and limbs, 
 and all things else for his sake, because he so loved 
 us, that he laid down his life for us, which may 
 suffice for the love of th^ church to Christ. It re- 
 mains now, that I speak of a church's petition to her 
 beloved Spouse. 
 
 Tell me, O thou, whom my soul loveth where thou 
 J'eedest, fyc. 
 
 In this place, as in many others the church com- 
 pares Christ to be a faithful shepherd, in imitation 
 of the prophet Isaiah, who saith, " He will gather 
 together his lambs," Isa. xl. 11. and of Ezekiel, 
 " Behold I will require my flock of the shepherd : 
 and I myself will feed my sheep, and cause them 
 to rest in quiet," Ezek. xxxiv. 10. Which is ac- 
 knowledged of the prophet David, " The Lord is 
 nay shepherd, I shall not want," Psalm xxiii. 1. 
 Yea, Christ calls himself so, when he says, " I am 
 the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am 
 known of mine," John x. 14. 
 
 To this shepherd, the church put up her humble 
 petition in the most devout manner, that he would 
 be pleased to tell her where he feeds his flocks, 
 
OR, A FOLD FOR CHRIST'S SHEEP. 137 
 
 with the preaching of the word, and the use of the 
 sacraments, that she may join with them to receive 
 the benefit of -the holy sacrament, and be comforted ; 
 for though the church of Christ is but one, yet it has 
 many parts, as the Holy Spirit distinguished it, 
 writing to the seven churches in Asia. And as 
 there, so here, one part may be under persecution, 
 and the other in prosperity ; but in the text, the 
 church desires to know where Christ feeds his sheep 
 according to his word, that she may join with them 
 in the service of God. 
 
 By this petition, we find, it is a true sign of a 
 sheep belonging to Christ's fold, when he hungers 
 and thirsts after the word of God, faithfully preached, 
 and the sacraments duly administered, which our 
 Saviour himself observes to be tKe mark of his 
 sheep, John x. 27. My sheep hear my voice, and 1 
 hear them : but the voice of a stranger will they not 
 hear. David was very earnest, in seeking for God, 
 when he saith, O hoiv amiable are thy tabernacles ? 
 How does my soul long after thy altar ? O when 
 shall 1 come, and appear before the. Lord in Sion ? 
 Even so should every Christian hunger and thirst 
 after Christ in the spirit, as the body hungers and 
 thirsts after nourishment to refresh it, for the holy 
 Scriptures are the nourishment of the soul, and those 
 that hunger not after it, but after the things of this 
 world, starve and pine their souls to death, even the 
 second death, which is the most terrible of all. And 
 this is the miserable case of too many, who strive to 
 pamper their bodies, but never mind to refresh their 
 souls with spiritual food ; yea seeing there are but 
 few, very few that desire the word of God, or can 
 discern what a miserable condition they are in but 
 
 (6.) 
 
138 THE SHEPHERD'S TENT, 
 
 expose themselves to temptations, which lead them 
 insensibly into sin before they know what they are 
 about, never so much as reflecting upon them- 
 selves to say, Alas, What have 1 done ? Jer. viii. 6. 
 Much less having a desire for the sincere milk of 
 the Word, or longing for it, as the infant doe> 
 for the mother's breast, or panteth after it, as the 
 hart does after the water brook, Psalm xlii. or as 
 the Church does in the text, Tell me where thou 
 feedest thy flock. We should do as the earth cloth 
 ih time of drought, open our mouths until the Lord 
 sends rain. The beggar never begs so earnestly, till 
 he feels his own want, and then he will neither spare 
 time, labour or words ; so till we see our own 
 wants, we never seek for the sp : ritual food of our 
 souls : But they are blessed, who hunger and thirst 
 after righteousness, Matt. v. 6. 
 
 Those that fancy themselves happy, because they 
 feel no want, are most likely to fall into it, because 
 their imagined plenty makes them negligent to re- 
 cruit their wanting stores ; so even it is with a sin- 
 ner, whose sins have so far blinded him, that he is 
 not capable of seeing the want of grace and mercy, 
 {'■• stands in need of, to comfort his soul in the 
 great and terrible day of the Lorol ; who for refus- 
 ing the love of Christ, will meet with his' just 
 anger, hearing him say, / know ye not, depart from 
 me all ye workers of iniquity ; for he that denies 
 Kim before men, he will deny before his father 
 which is in heaven. 
 
 Now the reason why we do not hunger nor thirst 
 after the Word of God, is, because we do not con- 
 sider it is the Bread and water of Life, and without 
 it we c;i" n#»*er eniov the variety of all those good 
 
0.R, A FOLD FOR CHRIST'S SHEEP. 139 
 
 tilings, which are treasured up in the Word, to make 
 us truly happy ; for as all good things which we 
 have, and enjoy in this present life, are appendances 
 to the Word of God, by which Word, and the 
 Lord's Prayer they are sanctified to us. And no 
 otherwise can it be obtained, but by thirsting after 
 it, as the Blessed Virgin expresseth it in her song, He 
 jillelh the hungry with good things, and the rich he 
 hath sent empty away, Luke i. 53. By the rich here, 
 are meant those that think they want nothing, when 
 indeed they want every thing, wanting the comfor- 
 table application of God's Word to their souls ; for 
 want of which, the soul pines away whilst those that 
 hunger after it, have their souls satisfied with all 
 good things in this life, and lay up a store of end- 
 less blessings in the life to come : Which may serve 
 to comfort the distressed children of God, which 
 labour and travel to hear the Word preached, 
 though they meet with mocking and scoffing for 
 it, by unbelievers. Beside, if we should not ea- 
 gerly seek after the Word of God, we should never 
 know how much we are beholden unto the Lord, 
 for the manifold blessings we receive : For as So- 
 lomon saith, The full soul loatheth the honey-comb, 
 but unto the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet, 
 Frov. xxvii. 7. So that when we shall come to a 
 sense of our spiritual poverty* it should, one would 
 think, make us highly prize it, as the only thing 
 that can supply our wants, and make us rich in 
 the abundance of all good things held forth to us, 
 in hearing the Word preached, and reading and 
 digesting it to our comfort. 
 
 Now | seeing this longing after the word that 
 Christ hath left us, is an infallible mark that we are 
 
140 THE SHEPHERDS TENT, 
 
 of his fold, and that he is our shepherd, we ought 
 therefore to enquire where Christ cloth feed his sheep, 
 and to gain such a mark, as may distinguish us from 
 the goats, who tread down the pasture of the sheep, 
 Ezek. xxxiv. 18. Who can be content as well to 
 want the word of God, as to have it ? By which 
 we may judge of our own estates, whether we be 
 the true sheep of Christ, or the goats of Satan, the 
 children of God, or limbs of the devil. If thou love 
 the word of God, and desirest to be taught, and to 
 Know where Christ doth feed his sheep with good 
 pasture, and doth delight in his word, John x. 27. 
 then thou mayest minister comfort unto thy soul, if 
 thou art one of those that belong unto his fold ; but 
 if thou loath the word of God, and never desirest 
 to put thy foot in God's house, but spendest the 
 sabbath in gaming and drinking, it is a sign thou 
 art none of Christ's sheep, but one of the stinking- 
 goats of satan, and thou shalt be divided in the last 
 day from the sheep whom he shall set on the right 
 hand, and the goats on the left. Which serves to 
 reprove three sorts of men. 
 
 First, The Atheist, who thinks it lost labour to 
 serve the Lord, and that there is no good got by 
 hearing sermons, or leading a godly life ; but let 
 such take warning in time, if they expect to have 
 any comfort in the hour of death. 
 
 Secondly, The Papists, who keep poor men in 
 ignorance, and all those who hinder Christ's sheep- 
 to be taught, who otherwise would enquire, Where 
 Christ feedeth his sheep. These men are like the 
 Scribes and Pharisees, who shut up the kingdom of 
 heaven, that will not enter themselves, nor suffer 
 Ihos?. that would. Whereas the scripture doth 
 
OR, A FOLD FOR CHRIST'S SHEEP. 141 
 
 require of all men, to try the spirits, whether they 
 he of God, 2 John iv. 1. Otherwise, if they follow 
 their fake teachers, they are sure to perish, for if 
 the blind lead the blind, they both fall into the ditch, 
 Matt. xv. 14. 
 
 Thirdly, All covetous persons,, who enquire where 
 they may get a good purchase, and never enquire 
 where Christ feeds his sheep; who are certainly none 
 of Christ's sheep, for if they were, they would hear 
 his voice and follow him, John x. 27. but let such 
 be warned in time, if they expect any comfort in 
 death, and at the day of judgment, that they now 
 labour to be found sheep of the fold of Christ's, and 
 not to follow vain notions. 
 
 It is the duty of the true church -of God, to ac- 
 knowledge Christ Jesus alone for their shepherd, 
 the only head and chief bishop of his church, " I 
 am the true shepherd, and know my sheep, and am 
 known of mine," John x. 14. which is acknowledged 
 by Peter, in behalf of the disciples, who saith, 
 " Master, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the 
 words of eternal life. And Christ hath promised 
 to be present with his church, even to the end of 
 the world," Matt, xxviii. 20. 
 
 And the reason why they should be thus marked, 
 is, because the great work of salvation is wholly 
 and entirely wrought by him, as the apostle wit- 
 nesseth, " That amongst men there is no other name 
 given under heaven, in whom and by whom we can 
 be saved, but only the name of Jesus Christ-" And 
 in another place, St. Paul saith, Wherefore tic is 
 able also to save them to the uttermost, that come 
 unto God by him. Which is a plain argument 
 against the church of Rome, who will not own 
 
142 THE SHEPHERDS TENT, 
 
 Christ to be their great Pastor, and general Shep- 
 herd, but set up the Pope as Vicar, and prefer him 
 before the Lord that redeemed them ; and will not 
 allow the people the use of the scriptures, but give 
 them inventions and traditions of men, because 
 They ivill not hear his voice and follow Mm, Jpkn 
 x. .27. and be content with the food he hath pie- 
 pared for them, but feed upon filthy puddles of 
 men's inventions. 
 
 % By this we ought to learn to teach nothing but 
 the truth of God according to his revealed word, 
 not any dreams or imaginations of our own to please 
 the people's ears, but destroy their souls. And you 
 that are hearers, must content yourselves with the 
 plain and pure preaching of the word of God, and 
 not to be carried away with vain imaginations, that 
 tickle the ear, and cannot work grace in the heart. 
 As the wicked doctrines in the Church of Rome, 
 which poison men's souls, rather than edify them ; 
 which may suffice for the church's first request, I 
 shall now proceed to the second. 
 
 And ivhere thou makest thy flock to rest at noon. 
 
 This passage in the text alludes to a custom in 
 those hot countries, to drive their sheep to pastures 
 in the morning, and when the sun waxeth hot, at 
 noon, to drive them to cool shades for refresh- 
 ment. 
 
 So here the church intreats him to tell her where 
 he feeds his sheep, that is, where his faithful people 
 (hid protection, in the heat of persecution, which is 
 meant here by noon day, when the sun is most hot, 
 • our Saviour s;iys o f evil hearers. And ichen the 
 
OR, A FOLD FOR CHRIST'S SHEEP. 143 
 
 sun ivas up, they were scorched, and for want of root, 
 they withered away. 
 
 From whence we may observe, First, that the 
 Church of God sometimes is in the very heat of 
 persecution, and that it is Christ's will that his 
 people should be tried. According to the rule of 
 St. Paul, Whosoever will live godly in Christ Jesus, 
 must suffer persecution, 2 Tim. ii. 12. And David 
 tells us, Many are the troubles of the righteous, but 
 the Lord delivers them out of all, Psal. lv. 19. 
 
 This was the condition of the Israelites in Egypt, 
 Exod. i. 42. and of the Church of the Hebrews, 
 " They were stoned, they were hewn asunder, they 
 were buried, they were slain with the sword, wan- 
 dering up and down in bear skins, and in goat 
 skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented. And 
 our Saviour foretells, That they shall excommuni- 
 cate you : yea, the time shall come, that who- 
 soever killeth you, will think that he doeth God 
 service :" And he gives his reason for it, because 
 they have not knoivn the Father nor me: So that 
 if we expect to live and reign with Christ in his 
 Church Triumphant, we must patiently suffer in the 
 Church Militant on earth. 
 
 Secondly, That Christ never forsakes his flock : 
 but in the heat of noon-day, even in the midst of 
 persecution, he gives them comfort and refresh- 
 ment. St. Paul saith, It is necessary that afflictions 
 should come, that the elect may be manifested who 
 they be. And therefore God would have Abra- 
 ham tempted to try his faith, Job to prove his 
 patience, David his piety, and Paul his courage, 
 who all for a time endured the shame and re- 
 proach of the cross, yet afterwards the Lord return- 
 
144 THE SHEPHERD'S TENT, 
 
 ed to them, when the time of refreshing came. 
 So that although God's children may be under the 
 lieat of persecution for a time, it shall be but for 
 a time ; he will not leave them destitute of help for 
 ever, but will in the end" deliver them.*. And the 
 reasons are manifest. 
 
 First, If we consider God as a Father, he will 
 take care of us ; for what father will not save his 
 child," And if we that are evil know how to help 
 our children, how much more shall our heavenly 
 leather that' knoweth all things, give good things 
 unto his children." 
 
 Secondly, Christ is called a shepherd, and W\\\ 
 the shepherd see the sheep go astray, and not bring 
 them home, or let the wolf devour them, and not 
 rescue them ; and can we imagine that Christ the 
 true shepherd of his church, will be more careless 
 of fliis flock, which he purchased at so dear a price 
 as his own precious blood, than a man is of his 
 sheep. 
 
 Thirdly, Our weakness is not hid from the Lord, 
 he knoweth whereof we are made, he remembers 
 we are but dust; and therefore saith the Apostle, 
 l< God is faithful, that he will not suffer us to be 
 tempted above that which we are able ; but will 
 even with the temptation, make a way to, escape, 
 that ye may be able to bear it," 1 Cor. x. 13. Am! 
 the reason why he suffers us to be afflicted thus. 
 is to humble us, lest by over much prosperity, like 
 Jeshurun, we should grow fat and kick, and that 
 being afflicted, they should lift up their eyes to the 
 hills, from whence cometh their deliverance, and 
 not be puffed up with pride, and rely on their own 
 strength, as the Papists do, which cannot avail 
 (hem in time of need 
 
OR, A FOLD FOR CHRIST'S SHEEP. 145 
 
 Use 1. This directs us to whom we should go 
 iji time of trouble, for if God be our Father, he 
 will take care of his children ; if Christ be out 
 shepherd, he is the preserver of his flock: Shall we 
 be so foolish then as the Papists, and seek for help 
 from saints and angels ; Doubtless, Abraham is ig- 
 norant oj vs, and Israel knowethns not, Isa. lxiii. 10. 
 
 Use 2. Here is endless comfort unto all the 
 children of God, who hath promised, and certainly 
 will provide a place of comfort, a shade at noon- 
 day, in the heat of persecution. In the midst of 
 which, we may say with holy David, " Why art thou 
 cast down (O my soul) and why art thou so disquiet- 
 ed within me ? hope then in God, for I shall yet 
 praise him for the help of his countenance." 
 
 Use 3. This shews the woeful condition of all 
 wicked and ungodly men, who shall hide their 
 heads, and find no place of shelter or refuge in the 
 time of persecution. 
 
 The reason the Church useth to move the Lord 
 Jesus Christ to grant her request, is taken from 
 the great danger she was likely to fall into, lest be- 
 ing constrained To turn aside to the flock of thy com- 
 panions ; that is, to leave the true Church and 
 worship of God, and join with the false Church, 
 the flock of thy companions. 
 
 From hence we may learn, that it is impossible 
 for men and women to stand the brunt of persecu- 
 tion, unless they be taught of God, and comforted 
 by his Holy Spirit, which made David earnestly 
 crave, That the Lord would open ■ his eyes, that he 
 might see the wondrous things of God's law, and 
 make him to understand the way of his precepts. 
 And Paul prayed for the Ephesians, " That God 
 
 (7 ) 
 
146 THE SHEPHERD'S TENT, 
 
 would give them the spirit of wisoom, and enlighten 
 their minds, that they may know what is the hope of 
 their calling, and what the riches are of this glorious, 
 inheritance." 
 
 And the reasons are, 
 
 First, We are by nature blind, and can see no- 
 thing, unless Gcd direct us by his spirit, as Solomon 
 saith, Prov. xiv. 12. The ways that seem right vnto 
 us, the issues thereof are the ways of death. 
 
 Secondly, Unless the Lord do assist us, we shall 
 not be able to undergo the least temptation that 
 shall befal us. 
 
 An-d Lastly, The enemies of truth, are in their 
 generation wiser than the children of light. 
 
 Use 1. This shews that if persecution do arise 
 for the truth of the gospel, it is to be feared most 
 men would yield to the flock of his companions, 
 either to deny God or to worship him in idolatry, 
 aa the Papists do. 
 
 Use 2. This should stir us up to pray to Christ, 
 to open our eyes that we may see the truth, and fo 
 live and die in it, and to try the spirits whether they 
 be of God; so that we may discern truth from false 
 hood. 
 
 IJse 3. This condemns all who for fear of per 
 Gecution, turn, as doth the wind, and join with 
 Papists, Jews, Turks, or with the devil himself for 
 advantage. 
 
 Canticles 8. 
 
 We have already heard the earnest request of the 
 church, that Christ would in mercy shew her where 
 
OK, A FOLD FOR CHRIST'S SHEEP. 147 
 
 he feeds his flock, and where he refresheth them in 
 time of trouble. In which we may observe three 
 things. 
 
 First, Ilis love and kindness, in that he calls her, 
 The fairest among women. 
 Secondly, His reproof, If thou h?ww not. 
 Thirdly, His direction, Go thy way forth hj the 
 footsteps of the flotfi ; that is, by the direction and 
 rule of the word of God, which leads to all truth, 
 even in the steps of the Patriarchs, Prophets, and 
 Apostles ; and in doing of this, he adds ornaments 
 of beauty to her, calls her " the rose of the field, the 
 lily of the valley, the fairest amongst women, an 
 orchard of pomegranates, a well of springing 
 waters, the spouse and sister of Christ, the beauty 
 of the earth, the glory oi the world, a lily among 
 thorns," &c. 
 
 By which expressions we see how dear and pre- 
 cious the church is in the sight of Christ her beloved 
 spouse, and how gracious and merciful he is to pass 
 over her blemishes, and call her the jairest among 
 icomen, though a little before she confesseth herself 
 to be black and deformed, yet now she is comely as 
 the lily, or unsullied rose. 
 
 The use is this, Dost thou repent of thy sins, and 
 art truly humbled for them ? Then comfort thyself, 
 that Jesus Christ will blot them all out ; so that 
 thou shalt appear fair and beautiful in his sight. 
 Be not discouraged, if thou believest in Christ, 
 and hate thy sins, he will cover them all as he did 
 David's. 
 
 Let us learn by Christ's example, if we see any 
 good thing in our fellow creature to commend it ; 
 and if any infirmity to cover it with the cloak of 
 
118 THE SHEPHERDS TENT, 
 
 love, and not as the wicked do, if they spy one 
 blemish, to blaze it abroad, and pass by a thousand 
 good actions of their lives : Which may suffice for 
 the first part, wherein Christ calls his church the 
 fairest among women. 
 
 Secondly, His gentle reproof, If thou knozv not, 
 I will direct and shew thee how to find it out. By 
 which we might observe, that a true believer may 
 sometimes be so blind, that he doth not know where 
 Christ doth feed his flock; let us therefore do as the 
 ra«n of Berea did, intreat the Lord to give ?is the 
 spirit of discerning, tliat we may try all things, and 
 hold the truth. 
 
 Go thy ivay forth by the footsteps j)f the flock ; 
 that is, tlKHi must walk in the steps of the fakhful 
 servants of the Lord, and embrace the true faith, as 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did, and believe in the 
 doctrine which the prophets and apostles ha^e 
 taught and delivered, in the Old and New Testa- 
 ment, and then thou shalt know where I feed my 
 sheep, that thou mayest feed with them. 
 
 If any man desires to know where Christ feeds 
 his sheep, it is where God is truly worshipped, and 
 we walk by faith with God as Enoch did, and the 
 prophets and apostles, whom we may conclude to 
 be the true sheep of the fold, whom Christ in this 
 world doth preserve, and will preserve for evermore. 
 For thus saith the Lord, " Stand in the way, and 
 behold, ask for the old way, which is the good way, 
 and walk therein, and you shall find peace and rest 
 for your souls." 
 
 Let us then stand out against the Antichrist of 
 Rome, and as Christ saith, come out of her, join 
 not with her in her false religion, and idolatrous 
 
OR, A FOLD FOR CHRIST'S SHEEP. 149 
 
 service of God, lest we partake of her judgments : 
 But let us hold fast the true religion of God, Tread 
 in the steps of the sheep, fed by the tents of the shep- 
 herd. Let us live and die in the true church of 
 God, and for ever hold fast the true antient, and 
 holy religion, which we have received from the holy 
 Patriarchs, the Prophets, and all the holy Apostles 
 of Jesus "Christ, and then we shall be safe and sure, 
 yea, blessed and happy for evermore. 
 
 A MORNING PRAYER FOR A FAMILY 
 
 Lord, teach us to pray, that ice may call upon thy 
 name, prepare our hearts to seek thee ; and open 
 thou thy ears to hear us. 
 
 ETERNAL and everlasting Lord God, by 
 whose gracious providence we are preserved,, 
 for which we desire to humble both souls and bodies 
 before thee : acknowledging our unworthiness to 
 appear before thee, who are but vile earth and 
 miserable worms, the very thoughts and imagina- 
 tions of our hearts being evil, yet, O Lord, thou 
 hast commanded us to call upon thee, and hast 
 promised to grant our requests, which are put up 
 to thee, in faith, which gives us confidence to call 
 upon thee, knowing that thou wilt at ail times make 
 gpod thy promises to us. 
 
 We offer unto thee, this morning sacrifice of prayer 
 and thanksgiving, humbly confessing our manifold 
 shis and transgressions against thy divine majesty ; 
 for which we have justly deserved thy wrath and 
 indigualion, both in ibis life and the life to come. 
 
loO THE SHEPHERDS TEM T, 
 
 O God, we come not before thee in our own un- 
 worthiness, but in the worthiness of thy Son Jesus 
 Christ, hnmbly beseeching thee for his sake, to for- 
 give all our offences, both in thought, word and deed. 
 And grant, O God, by the assistance of thy holy 
 spirit, that we may serve thee in righteousness and 
 true holiness all the days of our lives. 
 
 Begin not, O Lord, repentance in us only, but of 
 thy great mercy perfect the same, and increase us 
 in the saving knowledge of thee, and of thy Son Jesus 
 Christ, and frame our weak hearts more and more 
 to the obedience of thy will, and teach us to resign 
 our affections to thy will, in time of affliction, as in 
 time of prosperity. 
 
 Comfort, O Lord, our sorrowful hearts and de- 
 jected souls, who daily do those things which we 
 would not, and leave undone those which thou coni- 
 raandest, and give usability to withstand the tempta- 
 tions of the devil, the world, and the finftij lusts of 
 the flesh, so that we may honour thee in all our 
 actions, and extol thy name while we live here, and 
 at last behold thy face in glory. 
 
 And be pleased also to accept of our praises and 
 thanksgivings, for thy many favours which thou from 
 time to time hast bestowed upon us, more especially 
 for calling us by thy Word in time, and for justifying 
 us by thy Son Christ, as well as for giving us a cer- 
 tain expectation of a better life when this is ended. 
 Oh ! it is thy great goodness, O Lord, that thou hast 
 not deprived us of them all, who have from time to 
 time walked so unworthy of thy love : But lay not to 
 our charge our ingratitude, that we have not brought 
 forth more fruit in our lives, but grant for the time to 
 come, we may take more steps to thy kingdom. 
 
OR, A FOLD FOR CHRIST'S SHEEP. 151 
 
 We magnify thy name, O Lord, for all thy tem- 
 poral blessings which thou hast in mercy bestowed 
 upon us, and beg of thee, to give us a right use oi 
 them, that we may not abuse them, unto licentious- 
 ness. Praised be thy holy name for keeping us the 
 night past from all dangers both of soul and body, 
 and giving us sweet and comfortable rest ; and cause 
 that the rest of our lives, we may be good examples 
 unto others, and enjoy the peace of a good con- 
 science, till at last we come to reign with thee in 
 glory. Our Father, fyc. 
 
 AN EVENING PRAYER FOR -A FAMILY. 
 
 O Lord, prepare our hearts for prayer. 
 
 (f\ ETERNAL Oou, our loving and most mer- 
 ^-^ ciful Father, it is thy gracious promise that 
 where two or three are gathered together in thy 
 narae thou wilt be present among them ; we thy 
 poor and unworthy servants, dust and ashes, come 
 before thee, to offer an evening sacrifice of prayer 
 and thanksgiving. 
 
 We confess, O Lord, that we are grievous sinner*, 
 conceived in sin, and born in iniquity, and have 
 brought forth most vile fruit in our lives, to the great 
 dishonour of thy holy name, and the evil example 
 of our brethren ; for which we justly deserve thy 
 wrath and indignation to be poured upon us both 
 in this life, and that which is to come ; but we be;: 
 of thee, to be merciful unto us, and to forgive us our 
 sins ; for against thee only have we sinned, and done 
 this evil in thy sight 
 
152 THE SHEPHERDS TENT, kc. 
 
 To thee therefore do we come to crave the pardon 
 of our sins, that they may not draw down upon us 
 deserved judgments ; and to that intent, arm and 
 strengthen us against sin for the time to come. 
 Direct us aright, O Lord, in the paths of thy com- 
 mandments, and lead us by thy holy spirit into all 
 truth, so that our sinful hearts may be brought into 
 subjection, and faithful obedience unto Christ. 
 
 Guide us, O Lord, that we may give ourselves, 
 %our souls, and our bodies to be lively and accept- 
 able sacrifices unto thee. Let thy love constrain us 
 to love thee, who hast made us after thine own 
 image, and didst preserve us in our mother's womb, 
 and now daily nourishes us, and provides for us, 
 and gives us many blessings, which God grant we 
 may use to thy glory. 
 
 Accept, O merciful Lord, of our thanksgiving 
 unto thy majesty, for all thy mercies and blessings 
 from time to time bestowed upon us, and for the 
 assurance that thou hast given us of a better life 
 when this is ended, and for thy goodness towards 
 us this day, wherein thou hast freed us from many 
 dangers of soul and body, and brought us with peace 
 and comfort to the beginning of this night. In which. 
 Lord, watch over us with thy Holy Spirit, and give 
 us a holy and sanctified use of our rest and sleep, 
 so that we may be prepared for the duties of the 
 next day ; . and grant us all other things which we 
 may stand in need of, thou best knowing what is 
 most proper for us, for the sake of thy dear Son 
 Jesus Christ our Lord ; to whom with thee, O 
 Father, together with thy blessed Spirit, we ac- 
 knowledge to be due, and desire to give all honour, 
 praise, and glory, both now and for ever, Amen. 
 
 Our Father, which art in heaven, Sc. 
 
THE 
 
 END OF TIME. 
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
 FROM 
 
 Rev. x, 5, 6. 
 
 And the angel, wJiich I saw stand upon the sea, and upon the 
 earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that 
 liveth for ever and ever, — That there should be time no 
 longer. 
 
 jHIS is the oath, and the p ^mn sentence of a 
 mighty angel, who came down from heaven, 
 and by the description of him in the first verse, he 
 seems to be the angel of God's presence, in whom is 
 the name of God, even our Lord Jesus Christ him- 
 self who pronounced and sware, that time should be 
 no longer ; for all seasons and times are now put 
 into his hand, together with the book of his Father's 
 decrees ; Rev. v. 7, 9. What special age or period 
 of time, in this world, the prophecy refers to, may 
 not be so easy to determine ; but this is certain, that 
 it may be happily applied to the period of every 
 man's life ; for whensoever the term of our continu- 
 ance in this world is finished, our time, in the present 
 circumstances and scenes that attend it, shall be no 
 more. We shall be swept off the stage of this visible 
 ^tate into an unseen and eternal world : eternity 
 comes upon us at once, and all that we enjoy, all 
 
 v 
 
154 THE END OF TIME. 
 
 that we do, and all that we suffer in lime, shall be 
 110 longer. 
 
 Let us stand still here, and consider, in the first 
 place, what awful and important thoughts are con- 
 tained in this sentence, what solemn ideas should arise 
 to the view of mortal creatures, when it shall be pro- 
 nounced concerning each of them, that time shall be 
 no more. 
 
 1. The time of the recovery of our nature from 
 its sinful and wretched state shall be no longer 
 \Te come into this world fallen creatures, children 
 of iniquity, and heirs of death ; we have lost the image 
 of God, who made us, and which our nature enjoyed 
 m our first parents ; and, instead of it, we are changed 
 into the image of the devil, in the lusts of the mind, 
 in pride and malice, in self-sufficiency and enmity 
 to God ; and we have put on also the image of the 
 brute, in sinful appetites, and sensualities, and in the 
 lusts of the flesh ; nor can we ever be made truly 
 nappy, till the image of the blessed God be restored 
 upon us, till we are made holy, as he is holy, till we 
 have a divine change passed upon us, whereby we are 
 created anew, and reformed in heart and practice. 
 And this life is the only time given us for this impor- 
 tant change. If this life be finished, before the 
 image of God be restored to us, this image will never 
 be restored ; but we shall bear the likeness of devils 
 for ever ; and perhaps the image of the brute too, at 
 the resurrection of the body, and be further off from 
 God, and all that is holy, than ever vt e were here upon 
 earth. 
 
 Of what infinite importance is it then, to be fre- 
 quently awakening ourselves, at special seasons and 
 periods of life, to inquire, whether this image of God 
 
THE END OF TIME. 1^3 
 
 is begun to be renewed, whether we have this glorious 
 change wrought in us, whether our desires and 
 delights are fixed upon holy and heavenly things, 
 instead of those sensual and earthly objects, which 
 draw away all our souls from God and heaven. Let 
 it appear to us as a mutter of utmost moment to seek 
 after this change ; let us pursue it with unwearied 
 labours and strivings with our own hearts, and per- 
 petual importunities at the throne of grace, lest the 
 voice of him who swears that there shall be time no 
 longer, should seize us in some unexpected moment, 
 and lest he swear in his wrath concerning us, " Let 
 him that is unholy be unholy still, and let him that 
 is filthy be filthy still," Rev. xxii. 11. 
 
 '2. When this sentence is pronoivaced concerning 
 us, the season and the means of restoring us to the 
 favour and love of -God shall be no longer. We are 
 born children of wrath, as well as the sons and 
 daughters of iniquity ; Eph. ii. 3. We have lost the 
 original favour of our Maker and are banished from 
 his love, and the superior blessings of his goodness ; 
 and yet, blessed be the Lord, that we are not at pre- 
 nt for ever banished beyond all hope ; this time of 
 life is given us to seek the recovery of the love of 
 God, by returning to him according to the gospel of 
 his Son ; now is pardon and peace, now is grace 
 and salvation preached unto men, to sinful wretched 
 men, who are at enmity with God, and the objects 
 of his high displeasure ; now the voice of mercy calls 
 to us, This is the accepted time, this is the day of 
 salvation ; 2 Cor. vi. 2. To day if ye will hear his 
 voice, let not your hearts be hardened to refuse 
 it; Heb. hi. 15. Now the fountain of the blood ot 
 Christ is set open to wash our souls from the guilt of 
 
15ft THE END OF TIME 
 
 :iij ; now all (he springs of his mercy are broken 
 up in the ministrations of the gospel ; now God 
 is in Christ, reconciling sinners to himself; 2 C jr. 
 v. 19. and he has sent us his ministers to iutreut you 
 in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God ; and we 
 beseech you in his name, continue not one day or 
 one hour longer in your enmity and rebellion, but 
 be ye reconciled to God your Creator, and accept of 
 his offered forgiveness and grace, verse 20. 
 
 The moment is hastening upon us, w.hen this 
 mighty angel, who manages the affairs of the king- 
 dom of providence, shall swear concerning every 
 unbelieving and impenitent sinner, that the time of 
 offered mercy shall be no longer, the time of pardon 
 and grace and reconciliation shall be no more ■ the 
 sound of this mercy reaches not to the regions of the 
 dead ; those who die before they are reconciled, they 
 die under the load of al! their sins and must, perish for 
 ever, without the least hope or glimpse of reconciling 
 or forgiviag grace. 
 
 3. At the term of this mortal life, the time of 
 prayer and repentance and service for God or man 
 iu this world shall be no longer. Eccl. ix. ]0. 
 " There is no work nor deviee, nor knowledge, nor 
 wisdom, in the grave whither then goest," whither 
 we are all hastening. Let every sinful creature there- 
 fore ask himself, Have I never yet begun to pray ? 
 Never begun to call upon the mercy of the God that 
 made me? Never begun to repent of all my crimes 
 arjd follies ? Nor begun in good earnest to do service 
 for God, or to honour him amongst men ? Dreadful 
 ♦bought indeed ! When, it may be, the next hour 
 we may be put out of all capacity and opportunity 
 ;o do it for ever ! As soon as ever an impenitent 
 
THE END OF TIME. 157 
 
 sinner has the veil of death drawn over him, all his 
 Opportunities of this kind are for ever out off: he 
 that has neve* repented, never prayed, never honour- 
 ed his God, shall never be able to pray or repent, 
 or do any thing- for God or his honour through all 
 the ages of his future immortality : nor is there any 
 promise made to repenting or returning sinners in 
 the other world, whither we are hastening. As the 
 tree falls, when it is cut down, so it lies, and it must 
 for ever lie ; pointing to the north or the south, to 
 hell or heaven ; Eccl. xi. 3. 
 
 And, indeed, there is no true prayer, no sincere 
 repentance can be exercised after this life ; for the 
 soul that has wasted away all its time given for re- 
 pentance and prayer, is at the moment of death left 
 under everlasting hardness of heart : and whatsoever 
 enmity against God and godliness was found in the 
 heart in this world, is increased in the world to 
 come, when all manner of softening means and 
 mercies are ever at an end. This leads me to the 
 next thought. 
 
 4. How wretched soever our state is at death, the 
 day of hope is ended, and it returns no more. Be 
 our circumstances never so bad, yet we are not com- 
 pletely wretched while the time of hope remains. 
 We are all by nature miserable by reason of sin, but 
 it is only despair can perfect our misery. Therefore 
 fallen angels are sealed up under misery because there- 
 is no door of hope opened for them. But in this life 
 there is hope for the worst of sinful men : there is 
 the word of grace and hope calling them in the gos- 
 pel ; there is the voice of divine mercy sounding in 
 the sanctuary, and " blessed are they that hear the 
 joyful sound ; ? ' Psal. Ixxxix. 15 But if we turn the 
 
]">i THE END OF TIME. 
 
 deaf ear to the voice of God and his Son, and fo all 
 the tender and compassionate entreaties of a dying 
 Saviour* hope is hastening to its period; for this 
 very angel will shortly swear, that this joyful sound 
 shall be heard no longer. 
 
 He comes now to the door of our hearts, he sues 
 there for admittance, open unto me and receive me 
 as your Saviour and your Lord, give me and my 
 gospel free admission, and I will come in and bestow 
 upon you the riches of my grace and all my salva- 
 tion : open your hearts to me with the holy desires 
 and humble submission of penitence, and receive the 
 blessings of righteousness and pardon and eternal 
 life. He now invites you to return to God, with an 
 acknowledgment and renunciation of every sin, and 
 he offers to take you by the hand, and introduce you 
 into his Fathers presence with comfort : this is a 
 day of hope for the vilest and most hateful criminals ; 
 but if you continue to refuse, he will shortly swear 
 in his wrath, you shall never enter into his kingdom, 
 you shall never taste of the provisions of his grace, 
 you shall never be partakers of the blessings pur- 
 chased with his blood. Heb. iii. 11, 18. "I sware 
 in my wrath," saith the Lord, " they shall not enter 
 into my rest." 
 
 Oh the dreadful state of sinful creatures, who con- 
 tinue in such obstinacy, who waste away the means 
 of grace and the seasons of hope, week after week, 
 and month after month, till the day of grace and hope 
 is for ever at an end with them ! Hopeless creatures ! 
 Under the power and the plague of sin, under the 
 wratli and curse of a God, under the eternal displea- 
 sure of Jesns, who was once the minister of his 
 Father's love, and they must abide under all this 
 
THE END OF TIME. 159 
 
 wretchedness through a long eternity, and in the land 
 of everlasting despair. But I forbear that theme at 
 present, and proceed. 
 
 5. At the moment of our death the time of our 
 preparation for the hour of judgment, and for the 
 insurance of heaven and happiness shall be no longer. 
 Miserable creatures that are summoned to die thus 
 unprepared! This life is the only time to prepare 
 for dying, to get ready to stand before the Judge of 
 the whole earth, and to secure our title to the hea- 
 venly blessedness. Let my heart inquire, have I ever 
 seriously begun to prepare for a dying hour, and to 
 appear before the Judge of all ? Have I ever con- 
 cerned myself in good earnest, to secure an interest 
 id the heavenly inheritance, when this earthly taber- 
 nacle shall be dissolved ? Have I eve* made interest 
 for the favour of God, and a share of the inheritance 
 of the saints by Jesus the great Mediator, while he 
 afforded life and time ? 
 
 Death is daily and hourly hastening upon us : 
 Death is the king of terrors, and will fulfil all his 
 name to every soul that is unprepared. It is a piece 
 of wisdom then for every one of us, since we must 
 die, to search and feel whether death has lost its sting 
 or no : whether it be taken away by the blood of 
 Christ. Is this blood sprinkled on my conscience, 
 by the humble exercise of faith on a dying Saviour? 
 Are the terrors of death removed, and am 1 prepared 
 to meet it by the sanctifying influences of the blessed 
 Spirit ?. Have I such an interest in the covenant ot 
 grace as takes away the sting of death, as turns the 
 curse into a blessing, and changes the dark scenes of 
 death into the commencement of a new and everlast- 
 ing life ; This is that preparation for dying for which 
 
W> THE END OF TIME 
 
 our time of life was given us, and happy are those 
 who are taught of God to make this use of it. 
 
 Judgment is making haste towards us ; months 
 and days of divine patience are flying swift away, 
 and the last great day is just at hand ; then we must 
 give an account of " all that has been done in the 
 body, whether it has been good or evil ;" 2 Cor. v. 
 10. and what a dismal and distressing surprize will 
 it be to have the Judge come upon us in a blaze of 
 glory and terror while w r e have no good account to 
 Vgive at his demand ! And yet this is the very end 
 and design of all our time, which is lengthened out 
 to us on this side the grave, and of all the advantages 
 that we have enjoyed in this life, that we may be 
 ready to render up our account with joy, to the 
 Judge of all the earth. 
 
 Heaven is not ours by birth and inheritance, as 
 lands and houses on earth descend to us from our 
 earthly parents. We as well as they are by nature 
 unfit for heaven and children of wrath ; but we may 
 be born again, we may be born of God, and become 
 heirs of the heavenly inheritance through Jesus 
 Christ: we may be renewed into the temper and 
 Spirit of heaven ; and this life is the only season 
 that is given us for this important change : shall v> 
 iet our days and yeafs pass away one after another 
 in long succession, and continue the children of 
 wrath still ? Are we contented to go on this year as 
 the last without a title to heaven, without a divine 
 temper, and without any preparation for the busines> 
 ©r the blessedness of that happy world ? 
 
 6. When this life comes to an end, the time of 
 ail our earthly comforts and amusements shall be 
 no more. We shall have none of these sensible 
 
THE END OF TIME. 161 
 
 things around us to employ or entertain our eyes or 
 our ears, to gratify our appetites, to sooth our pas- 
 sions, or to support our spirits in distress. All ttnt 
 infinite variety of cares, labours and joys, which 
 surround us here, shall be no more : life with all 
 the busy scenes and the pleasing satisfactions of" it 
 dissolve and perish together ; have a care then that 
 you do not make any of them your chief hope, for 
 they are but the things of time, they are all short and 
 dying enjoyments. 
 
 Under the various calamities of this life we find a 
 variety of sensible reliefs, and our thoughts and souls 
 are called away from their sorrows by present busi- 
 ness, or diverted by present pleasure ; but all these 
 avocations and amusements will forsake us at once 
 when we drop this mortal tabernacle"!; we must enter 
 alone into the world of spirits and live without them 
 there. 
 
 Whatsoever agonies or terrors, or huge distresses, 
 we may meet with in that unknown region, we shall 
 have none of these sensible enjoyments to soften and 
 allay them ; no drop of sweetness to mix with that 
 bitter cup, no scenes of gaiety and merriment to 
 relieve the gloom of that utter darkness, or to sooth 
 the anguish of that eternal heart-ach. O, take heed, 
 my friends, that your souls do not live too much on 
 any of the satisfactions of this life, that your affec- 
 tions be not set upon them in too high a degree, that 
 you make thenuiot your idols and your chief good, 
 lest you be left helpless and miserable under ever- 
 lasting disappointment, for they cannot follow you 
 into the world of souls ; they are the things of time, 
 and they have no place in eternity. Read what 
 caution the apostle Paul gives us in our converse 
 
 (7.) x 
 
162 THE END OF TIME. 
 
 with the clearest comforts of life ; 1 Cor. vii. 29. 
 The time is short; and let those who have the 
 largest affluence of temporal blessings, who have the 
 nearest and kindest relatives, and the most endeared 
 friendships be mortified to them, and be in some 
 sense " as though they had them not," for ye cannot 
 possess them long. St. Peter joins in the same sort 
 of advice, 1 Pet. iv. 7. " The end of all things is 
 at hand, therefore be ye sober," be ye moderate in 
 every enjoyment on earth, and prepare to part with 
 Siem all when the angel pronounce* that " Time 
 shall be no longer :" his sentence puts an effectual 
 period to every joy in this life, and to every hope 
 that is not eternal. 
 
 Thus we have taken a brief survey of what are 
 the solemn and awful thoughts relating to such 
 mortal creatures in general, which are contained 
 in this voice or sentence of the angel, that time 
 shall be no longer. 
 
 In the second place, let us proceed further and 
 inqure a little what are those terrors which will 
 attend sinners, impenitent siuners, at the end of 
 time. 
 
 1. A dreadful account must be given of all 
 this lost and wasted time. When the Judge shall 
 ascend his throne in the air, and all the sons and 
 daughters of Adam are brought before him, the 
 grand inquiry will be, What have you done with 
 all the time of life in yonder world ? You spent 
 thirty or forty years there, or perhaps seventy or 
 eighty, and I gave you this time with a thousand 
 opportunities and means of grace and salvation; 
 what have you done with them all ? How many 
 sabbaths did I afford you ? How many sermons 
 
THE Ei\D OF TIME. \m 
 
 have ye heard ? How many seasons did I give you 
 for prayer, and retirement, and converse with 
 God and your own souls ? Did you improve time 
 well? Did you pray? Did you converse with your 
 souls and with God ? Or did you suffer time to slide 
 away in a thousand impertinences, and neglect the 
 one thing necessary ? ,J 
 
 2. A fruitless and bitter mourning for the 
 waste and abuse of time will be another consequence 
 of your folly. Whatsoever satisfaction you may 
 take now in passing time away merrily and without 
 thinking, it must not pass away so for ever. If the 
 approaches of death do not awaken you, yet judg- 
 ment will do it. Your consciences will be worried 
 with terrible reflections on your foolish conduct. 
 
 O could we but hear the complaints of the souls 
 in hell, what multitudes of them would be found 
 groaning out this dismal note, How hath my time 
 been lost in vanity, and my soul is now lost for 
 ever in distress ! How might I have shone among 
 the saints in heaven, had I wisely improved the 
 time which was given me on earth, given me on 
 purpose to prepare for death and heaven ! Then they 
 will for ever curse themselves, and call themselves 
 eternal fools, for hearkening to the temptations of 
 flesh and sense, which wasted their time, and deprived 
 them of eternal treasures. 
 
 3. Another of the terrors which will seize upon 
 impenitent sinners at the end of time will be end- 
 less despair of the recovery of lost time, and of 
 those blessings whose hope is for ever lost with it. 
 There are blessings offered to sinful miserable men 
 in time which will never be offered in eternity, nor 
 put within their reach for ever. The gospel hath 
 
164 THE END OF TIME. 
 
 no calls, no invitations, no encouragements, no pro- 
 mises for the dead, who have lost and wasted their 
 time, and are perished without hope. The region 
 of sorrows, whither the judge shall drive impenitent 
 sinners, is a dark and desolate place, where light 
 and hope can never come : but fruitless repentance 
 with horrors and agonies of soul, and doleful despair, 
 reign through that world without one gleam of light 
 or hope, or one moment of intermission. r l nen will 
 despairing sinners gnaw their tongues for anguish 
 *>f heart, and curse themselves with long execrations, 
 and curse their fellow-sinners who assisted them to 
 waste their time, and to ruin their souls. 
 
 4. The last terror I shall mention which will 
 attend sinners at the end of time is, an eternal 
 suffering of all the painful aud dismal consequences 
 of lost and wasted time. Not one smile from the 
 face of God for ever, not one glimpse of love or 
 mercy in his countenance, not one word of grace 
 from Jesus Christ, who was once the chief messen- 
 ger of the grace of God, not one favourable regard 
 from all the holy saints and angels ; but the fire and 
 brimstone burn without end, and the smoke of this 
 their torment will ascend for ever and ever before 
 the throne of God and the Lamb. 
 
 Who knows how keen and bitter will be the agonies 
 of an awakened conscience, and the vengeance of 
 a (provoked God in that world of misery ! How 
 will you cry out, O what a wretch have I been to 
 renounce all the advices of a compassionate Father, 
 when he would have persuaded me to improve 
 the time of youth and health ! Alas, I turned a 
 deaf ear to his advice, and now time is lost, and 
 my hopes of mercy for ever perished. How have 
 
THE END OF TIME. 16.'. 
 
 I treated with ridicule, among my vain companions, 
 the compassionate and pious counsels of my aged 
 parents who laboured for my salvation! How have 
 I scorned the tender admonitions of a mother, and 
 wasted that time in sinning and sensuality which 
 should have been spent in prayer and devotion ! 
 And God turns a deaf ear to my cries now, and is 
 regardless of all my groanings. This sort of an- 
 guish of spirit with loud and cutting complaints 
 would destroy life itself, and these inward terrors 
 would sting their souls to death, if there could be 
 any such thing as dying there. Such sighs and 
 sobs and bitter agonies would break their hearts and 
 dissolve their being, if the heart could break, or the 
 being could be .dissolved : but immortality is their 
 dreadful portion, immortality of sorrows to punish 
 their wicked and wilful abuse of time and that waste 
 of the means of grace they were guilty of in their 
 mortal state. 
 
 I proceed in the last place to consider what 
 reflections may be made on this discourse, or 
 what are some of the profitable lessons to be learnt 
 from it. 
 
 Reflection I. We may learn with great evi- 
 dence the inestimable worth and value of time, and 
 particularly to those who are not prepared for eter- 
 nity. Every hour you live is an hour longer given 
 you to prepare for dying, and to save a soul. If you 
 were but apprised of the worth of your own souls, 
 you would better know the worth of days and hours, 
 and of every passing moment, for they are given to 
 secure your immortal interest, and save a soul from 
 (jverlasting misery. And you would be zealous and 
 importunate in the prayer of Moses, the man of 
 
166 THE END OF TIME. 
 
 God, upon a meditation of the shortness of life. 
 Psal. xc. 12. 
 
 " So teach us to number our days, as to apply om 
 hearts. to wisdom," i. e. so teach us to consider how 
 few and uncertain our days are, that we may be 
 truly wise in preparing for the end of them. 
 
 It is a matter of vast importance to be ever ready 
 for the end of time, ready to hear this awful sentence 
 confirmed with the oath of the glorious angel, that 
 " Time shall be no longer." The terrors or the 
 comforts of a dying bed depend upon it : the solemn 
 and decisive voice of judgment depends upon it : the 
 joys and the sorrows of a long eternity depend upon 
 it : go now, careless sinners, and in the view of such 
 things as these, go and trifle away time as you have 
 done before ; time, that invaluable treasure : go and 
 venture the loss of your souls and the hopes" of 
 heaven and your eternal happiness, in wasting away 
 the remnant hours or moments of life : but rememr 
 ber the awfal voice of the angel is hastening toward 
 you, and the sound is just breaking in upon you, that 
 V Time shall be no longer." 
 
 Reflection II. A due sense of time hastening 
 to its period will furnish us with perpetual new 
 occasions of holy meditation. 
 
 Do I observe the declining day and the setting 
 sun sinking into darkness? so declines the day of 
 life, the hours of labour, and the season of grace : 
 O may I finish my appointed work with honour ere 
 the light is fled ! may I improve the shining hours 
 of grace ere the shadows of the evening overtake me, 
 ami my time of' working is no more ! 
 
 Do I see the moon gliding along through mid- 
 night, and fulfilling her stages in the dusky sky ? 
 
THE END OF TIME. W? 
 
 This planet also is measuring out my life, and bring- 
 ing the number of my months to their end. May I 
 be prepared to take leave of the sun and moon, 
 and bid adieu to these visible heavens, and all the 
 twinkling glories of them ! These are all but the 
 measurers of my time, and hasten me on towards 
 eternity. 
 
 Am I walking in a garden and stand still to observe 
 the slow motion of the shadow upon a dial there ? It 
 passes over the hour-lines with an imperceptible 
 progress, yet it will touch the last line of day-light 
 shortly : so my hours and my moments move onward 
 with a silent pace ; but they will arrive with cer- 
 tairty at the last limit, how heedless soever I am 
 oftheir motion, and how thoughtless soever I may 
 be of the improvement of time, or of the end of it. 
 
 Does anew year commence, and the first morning 
 of it dawn upon me? Let me remember that the last 
 year was finished, and gone over my head, in order to 
 make way for the entrance of the present : I have 
 one year the less to travel through this world, and to 
 fulfil the various services of a travelling state : may 
 my diligence in duty be double since the number of 
 my appointed years is diminished. 
 
 Do I find a new birth-day in my survey of the 
 calendar, the day wherein I entered upon the stage 
 of mortality, and was born into this world of sins, 
 frailties and sorrows, in order to my probation for a 
 better state ? Blessed Lord, how much have I spent 
 already of this mortal life, this season of my proba- 
 tion, and how little am I prepared for that happier 
 world ? how unready for my dying moment ? I am 
 hastening hourly to the end of the life, of man which 
 began at my nativity ; am I vet born of God ? Have 
 
108 THE END OF TIME. 
 
 I begun the life of a saint? Am I prepared for that 
 awful day which shall determine the number of my 
 months on earth? Am I fit to be born into the world 
 of spirits through the strait gate of death ? Am I re- 
 newed in all the powers of my nature, and made meet 
 to enter into that unseen world, where there shall be 
 no more of these revolutions of days and years, but 
 one eternal day fills up all the space with dirirre plea- 
 sure, or one eternal night with long and deplorable 
 distress and darkness ? 
 
 When I see a friend expiring, or the corpse of my 
 neighbour conveyed to the grave, alas ! their months 
 and minutes are all determined, and the seasons of 
 their trial are finished for ever ; they are gone to 
 their eternal home, and the estate of their souls is 
 fixed unchangeably : the angel that has sworn their 
 " time shall be no longer," has concluded their 
 hopes, or has finished their fears, and according to 
 the rules of righteous judgment, has decided their 
 misery or happiness for a long immortality. Take 
 this warning, O my soul, and think of thy own 
 removal. 
 
 Are we standing in the church-yard, paying the 
 last honours to the relics of our friends ? what a 
 number of hillocks of death appear all round us ! 
 what are the tomb-stones but memorials of the inha- 
 bitants of that town, to inform us of the period of alt 
 their lives, and to point out the day when it was 
 said to each of them, your " time shall be no longer." 
 0*may I readily learn this important lesson, that m\ 
 turn is hastening too ; such a little hillock shall 
 shortly arise for me on some unknown spot of 
 gfOUttd ; it shall cover this flesh and these bones of 
 wine in darkness, and shall hide them from the light 
 
CHRIST RAISINBLAX'VRrS. 
 
 
THE END OF TIME. 169 
 
 of the sun, and from the sight of man, till the heavens 
 be no more. 
 
 Perhaps some kind surviving friend may engrave 
 my name with the number of my days upon a plaip 
 funeral stone, without ornament, and below envy ; 
 there shall my tomb stand among the rest as a fresh 
 monument of the frailty of nature, and the end of 
 time. 'Tis possible some friendly foot may now and 
 then visit the place of my repose, and some tender 
 eye may bedew the cold memorial with a tear : one 
 or another of my old acquaintance may possibly at- 
 tend there to learn the silent lecture of mortality from 
 my grave-stone, which my lips are now preaching 
 aloud to the world : and if love and sorrow should 
 reach so far, perhaps while his soul is melting in his 
 eye-lids, and his voice scarce finds an utterance, he 
 will point with his finger and shew his companion 
 the month and the day of my decease. O that 
 solemn, that awful day, which shall finish my ap- 
 pointed time on earth, and put a full period to all 
 the designs of my heart, and all the labours of my 
 tongue and pen ! 
 
 Think, O my soul, that while friends or strangers 
 are engaged on that spot, and reading the day of thy 
 departure hence, thou wilt be fixed under a decisive 
 and unchangeable sentence, rejoicing in the rewards 
 of time well-improved, or suffering the long sorrows 
 which shall attend the abuse of it, in an unknown 
 world of happiness or misery. 
 
 Reflection III. We may learn from this dis- 
 course the stupid folly and madness of those who 
 are terribly afraid of the end of time whensoever 
 they think of it, and yet they know not what to do 
 with their time as it runs off daily and hourly. They 
 
 (8.) Y 
 
170 THE END OF TIME. 
 
 find their souls unready for death, and yet they live 
 from year to year without any further preparation 
 for dying : they waste away their hours of leisure 
 in mere trifling, they lose their seasons of grace, 
 their means and opportunities of salvation in a 
 thoughtless and shameful manner, as though they 
 had no business to employ them in ; they live as 
 though they had nothing to do with all their time 
 but to eat and drink, and be easy and merry. From 
 £he rising to the setting sun you find them still in 
 pursuit of impertinencies ; they waste God's sacred 
 time as well as their own, either in a lazy, indolent, 
 and careless humour, or in following after vanity, 
 sin and madness, while the end of time is hastening 
 upon them. 
 
 What multitudes are there of the race of Adam, 
 both in higher and in lower ranks who are ever com- 
 plaining they want leisure ; and when they have a 
 release from business for one day or one hour, they 
 hardly know what to do with that idle day, or how 
 4.0 lay out one of the hours of it, for any valuable pur- 
 pose? Those in higher station and richer circum- 
 stances have most of their time at their own command 
 and disposal ; but by their actual disposal of it you 
 plainly see they know not what it is good for, nor 
 what use to make of it ; they are quite at a loss how 
 to get rid of this tedious thing called time, which 
 lies daily as a burden on their hands. Indeed, if 
 their head ach, or their face grow pale, and a phy- 
 sician feel their pulse or look wishfully on their 
 countenance ; and especially if he should shake his 
 head, or tell them his fears, that they will not hold 
 out long, what surprize of soul, what agonies. and 
 terrors seize them on a sudden, for fear of the end of 
 
THE END OF TIME. 17* 
 
 time ! for they are conscious how unfit they are for 
 eternity : yet when the pain vanishes, and they feel 
 health again, they are as much at a loss as ever, 
 what to do with the remnant of life. 
 
 O the painful and unhappy ignorance of the sons 
 and daughters of men, that are sent hither on a trial 
 for eternity, and yet know not how to pass away time ! 
 they know not how to wear out life and get soon 
 enough to the end of the day : they doze their hours 
 away, or saunter from place to place, without any 
 design or meaning : they inquire of every one they 
 meet, what they shall do to kill time, (as the French 
 phrase is) because they cannot spend it fast enough ; 
 they are perpetually calling in the assistance of others 
 to laugh or sport, or trifle with them, and to help 
 them off with this dead weight of time, while at the 
 same moment, if you do but mention the end of time 
 they are dreadfully afraid of coming near it. What 
 folly and distraction is that ? What sottish inconsis- 
 tency is found in the heart and practice of sinful men, 
 Eccl. ix. 3. " The heart of the sons of men is full 
 of evil, madness is in their heart while they live, and 
 after that they go down to the dead." 
 
 O that these loiterers would once consider that time 
 loiters not ; days and hours, months and years, loiter 
 not ; each of them flies away with swiftest wing, as 
 fast as succession admits of, and bears them onward 
 to the goal of eternity. If they delay and linger 
 among toys and shadows, time knows no delay ; 
 and they will oue day learn by bitter experience what 
 substantial, important, and eternal blessings, they 
 have lost by their criminal and shameful waste of 
 time. " The apostle Peter assures them, 2 Pet. ii. 3. 
 Though they slumber and sleep in a lethargy of sin, 
 
172 THE END OF TIME. 
 
 so that you cannot awaken them, yet " their judg- 
 ment lingereth not, and their damnation slnmbereth 
 not." The awful moment is hastening upon them 
 which shall teach them terribly the true value oi 
 time ; then they would give all the golden pleasures, 
 and the riches and the grandeur of this world, to pur- 
 chase one short day more or one hour of time, wherein 
 they might repent and return to God, and get within 
 the reach of hope and salvation : but time and salva- 
 tion and hope are all vanished and fled and gone out 
 or their reach for ever. 
 
 Reflection IV. Learn from such meditations 
 as these, the rich mercy of God and the grace of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ in giving us so long a warning 
 before he swears that time shall be no more. Every 
 stroke of sickness is a warning-piece that life is coining 
 to its period : every death amongst our friends and 
 acquaintance, is another tender and painful admoni- 
 tion that our death also is at hand : the end of every 
 week and every dawuing sabbath, is another warn- 
 ing ; every sermon we hear of the shortness of 
 time and the uncertainty of life, is a fresh intimation, 
 that the great angel will shortly pronounce a period 
 upon all our time. How inexcusable shall we be if 
 we turn the deaf ear to all these warnings ? St. Peter 
 advises us to " count the long-suffering of the Lord 
 for salvation." 2 Pet. iii. 15. and to secure our 
 eternal safety, and our escape from hell during the 
 season of his lengthened grace. 
 
 Alas! how long has Jesus and his mercy, and 
 his gospel, waited on you, before you began to think 
 of the things of your everlasting peace ? And if you 
 are now solemnly awakened, yet how long has he 
 waited on you with fresh admonitions, and with 
 
THE END OF TIME. 173 
 
 special providences, with mercies and judgments, 
 with promises and invitations of grace, with threaten- 
 ing and words of terror, and with the whispers and 
 advices of his own Spirit, since you began to see your 
 danger ? And after all have you yet sincerely re- 
 pented of sin ? have you yet received the offered 
 grace ? have you given up yourselves to the Lord and 
 laid hold of his salvation ? 2 Cor. vi. 2. " This is 
 the accepted time, this is the day of salvation ; to-day 
 if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." 
 Heb. iii. 7, 8, &c. It is never said through all the 
 Bible, that " to-morrow is the day of grace, or to- 
 morrow is the time of acceptance ;" it is the present 
 hour only that is offered. Every day and every hour 
 is a mercy of unknown importance to sinful men : 
 It is a mercy, O sinners, that thou awaked not this 
 morning in hell, and that yon were not fixed without 
 remedy beyond the reach of hope and mercy. 
 
 Reflection V. Learn from this discourse what 
 a very useful practice it would be to set ourselves 
 often before hand as at the end of time, to imagine 
 ourselves just under the sound of the voice of this 
 mighty angel, or at the tribunal of Christ, and to call 
 our souls to a solemn account in what manner we 
 have passed away all our leisure time hitherto : 1 
 mean, all that time which hath not been laid out in 
 the necessities of the natural life for its support, and 
 its needful refreshment, or in the due and proper 
 employments of the civil life : both these are allowed 
 and required by the God of nature, and the God of 
 providence who governs the world ; but what has; 
 thou done, O man ; O woman, what hast thou done 
 with all the hours of leisure, which might have been 
 laid out on far better employments, and to far nobler 
 
174 THE END OF TIME. 
 
 purposes ! give me leave to enter into particulars a 
 little, for generals do but seldom convince the mind, 
 or awaken the conscience, or affect the heart. 
 
 1. Have you not slumbered or squandered away 
 too much time without any useful purpose or design 
 at all ? How many are there, that when they have 
 morning hours on their hands, can pass them off on 
 their beds, and lose and forget time in " a little more 
 sleep, and a little more slumber;" a few imperfinen- 
 cies with breakfast and dressing, wear out the morn- 
 ing without God. And how many afternnoon and 
 evening hours are worn away in such sauntering idle- 
 ness as I have described, that when the night comes 
 they cannot review one half hour's useful work, from 
 the dawn of the morning to the hour of rest. Time 
 is gone and vanished, and as they know not what to 
 do with it while it was present, so now it is past, they 
 know not what they have done with it : they keep 
 no account of it, and are never prepared to come to a 
 reckoning : but will the great Judge of all take this 
 for an answer to such a solemn inquiry ? 
 
 2. Have you never laid out much more time than 
 was needful in " recreations and pleasures of sense ?* 
 recreations are not unlawful, so far as they are ne- 
 cessary and proper to relieve the fatigue of the spirits, 
 when they are tired with business or labour, and to 
 prepare for new labours and new businesses ; but 
 have we not followed sports without due limitation ? 
 Hath not some of that very time been spent in them 
 which should have been laid out in preparing, for 
 death aud eternity, and in seeking things of far higher 
 importance ? 
 
 3. Have you not wasted too much time in your 
 frequent clubs and what you call good company, and 
 
THE END OF TIME. 175 
 
 in places of public resort. Hath not the tavern or 
 the coffee-house, or the alehouse, seen and known you 
 from hour to hour for a whole evening, and that 
 sometimes before the trade or labours of the day 
 should hare been ended ? And when your Bible and 
 your closet, or the devotion of your family, have 
 sometimes called upon your conscience, have you 
 not turned the deaf ear to them all ? 
 
 4. Have not useless and impertinent visits been 
 made to no good purpose, or been prolonged beyond 
 all necessity or improvement ? when your conversa- 
 tion runs low even to the dregs, and both you and 
 your friends have been at a loss what to say next, and 
 knew not how to fill up the time, yet the visit must 
 go on and time must be wasted. -Sometimes the 
 wind and the weather and twenty insignificancies, or 
 (what is much worse) scandal of persons or families 
 have come in to your relief, that there might not be 
 too long a silence; but not one word of God or 
 goodness could find room to enter in and relieve the 
 dull hour. Is none of this time ever to be account- 
 ed for ? and will it sound well in the ears of the great 
 Judge, We ran to these sorry topics, these slander- 
 ous and backbiting stories, because we could not tell 
 what to talk of, and we knew not how to spend our 
 time. 
 
 5. Have you not been guilty of frequent and 
 even perpetual delays or neglects of your proper ne- 
 cessary business in the civil life, or in the solemn 
 duties of religion," by busying yourselves m some 
 other needless thing under this pretence, 'Tis time 
 enough yet ? 
 
 Have you learnt that important and eternal rule of 
 prudence, " Never delay till to-morrow what may be 
 
176 THE END OF TIME. 
 
 done to-day ; never put off till the next hour what 
 may be done in this ?" Have you not often expe- 
 rienced your own disappointment and folly by these 
 delays? and yet have you ever so repented as to 
 learn to mend them ? Solomon tells us, Eccl. iii 1 . 
 " There is a time for every purpose and every work 
 under the sun :" a proper and agreeable time for 
 every lawful work of nature and life ; and it is the 
 business and care of a wise man to do proper work 
 in proper time ; but when we have let slip the proper 
 season, how often have we been utterly disappointed ? 
 have we not sustained great inconveniences ? and 
 sometimes it hath so happened that we could never 
 do that work or business at all, because another 
 proper season for it hath never offered ; time hath 
 been no more. Felix put off his discourse with 
 Paul about the faith of Christ and righteousness 
 and judgment to come, to a more convenient time, 
 which probably never came. Acts xxiv. 25. And 
 the word of God teaches us, that if we neglect our 
 salvation in the present day of grace, the angel in 
 my text is ready to swear, that time shall be no 
 longer. 
 
 Here permit me to put in a short word to those 
 who have lost much time already. 
 
 O my friends, begin now to do what in you lies to 
 regain it by double diligence in the matters of your 
 salvation, lest the voice of the archangel should finish 
 your time of trial, and call you to judgment before 
 you are prepared. 
 
 What here lies before you for this double improve- 
 ment, God only knows : the remnant of the measure 
 of your days are with him, and every evening the 
 number is diminished : let not the rising sun upbraid 
 
THE END OF TIME. 177 
 
 you with continual negligence. Remember your 
 former abuses of hours and months and years, in 
 folly and sin, or at best in vanity and trifling : let 
 these thoughts of your past conduct lie with such an 
 effectual weight on your hearts as to keep you ever 
 vigorous in present duty. Since you have been so 
 lazy and loitering in your Christian race in time 
 past, take larger steps daily, and stretch all the 
 powers of your souls to hasten towards the crown 
 and the prize. Hearken to the voice of God in his 
 word with stronger attention and zeal to profit ; pray 
 to a long-suffering God with double fervency ; cry 
 aloud, and give him no rest, till yuur sinful sonl is 
 changed into penitence and renewed to holiness, 
 till you have some good evidences of your sincere 
 love to God and unfeigned faith in his Son Jesus. 
 Never be satisfied till you are come to a well 
 grounded hope through grace, that God is your 
 friend, your reconciled Father, that when days and 
 months are no more, you may enter into the region 
 of everlasting light and peace. 
 
 But I proceed to the last'general remark. Learn 
 the unspeakable happiness of those who have im- 
 proved time well, and who wait for the end of time 
 with Christian hope. They are not afraid, or at 
 least they need not be afraid of the sentence nor the 
 oath of this mighty angel, when he lifts up his hand 
 to heaven and swears with a loud voice, there shall 
 be time no more 
 
 O blessed creatures, who have so happily improved 
 the time of life and day of grace, as to obtain the 
 restoration of the image cf God in some degree on 
 their souls, and to recover the favour of God through 
 the gospel of Christ, for which end time was bestowed 
 
 (8.) z 
 
178 THE END OF TIME. 
 
 upon them : they have reviewed their follies with 
 shame in the land of hope ; they have mourned and 
 repented of sin ere the season of repentance was past, 
 and are become new creatures, and their lips and 
 their lives declare the divine change. They have 
 made preparation for death, for which purpose life 
 and time were given. Happy souls indeed, who 
 have so valued time as not to let it run off in trifles, 
 but have obtained treasures more valuable than that 
 % time which is gone, even the riches of the covenant 
 of grace, and the hopes of an eternal inheritance in 
 glory. 
 
 Happy such souls indeed when time is no more 
 with them ! their happiness begins when the dura- 
 tion of their mortal life is finished. Let us survey 
 this their happiness in a few particulars. 
 
 The time of their darknesses and difficulties is no 
 longer : the time of painful ignorance and error is 
 come to an end : you shall wander no more in 
 mistake and folly ; you shall behold all things in the 
 light of God, and see him face to face, who is the 
 original beauty and the eternal truth. You shall see 
 him without vails and shadows, without the reflecting 
 glass of his word and ordinances, which at best give 
 us but a faint glimpse of him, either in his nature or 
 wisdom, his power or goodness. You shall see him 
 in himself and in his Son Jesus, the brightest and 
 fairest image of the Father, and " shall know him as 
 you are known," 1 Cor. xiii. 10, 12. 
 
 There is no more time for temptation and danger : 
 when once you are got beyond the limits of this 
 visible world, and all the inticing objects of flesh 
 and sense, there shall be no more hazard of your 
 salvation, no more doubting and distressing fears 
 
THE END OF TIME. 179 
 
 about your interest in your Father's love, or in the 
 salvation of his beloved Son. There is no more 
 time nor place for sin to inhabit in you : the lease 
 of its habitation in your mortal body must end, when 
 the body itself falls into the dust : you shall feel no 
 more of its powerful and defiling operations either 
 in heart or life for ever. 
 
 The time of conflict with your spiritual adver- 
 saries is no longer. There is no more warfare be- 
 twixt the flesh and spirit, no more combat with the 
 world and the devil, who by a thousand ways have 
 attempted to deceive you and to bear you off from 
 your heavenly hope. Your warfare is accomplished, 
 your victory is complete, you are made overcomers 
 through him that has loved you. Death is the last 
 enemy to be overcome ; the sting of it is already 
 taken away, and you have now finished the conquest, 
 and are assured of the crown, 1 Cor. xv. 56, 57. 
 
 The time of your distance and absence from God 
 is no more : the time of coldness and indifference 
 and the fearful danger of backsliding is no more : 
 you shall be made as " pillars in the temple of your 
 God, and shall go no more out :" he shall love you 
 iike a God, and kindle the flames of your love to so 
 intense a degree as is only known to angels and to 
 the spirits of the just made perfect. 
 
 There is no more time for you to be vexed with 
 the " society of sinful creatures :" your spirits within 
 you shall be no more ruffled and disquieted with the 
 teizing conversation of the wicked, nor shall you be 
 interrupted in your holy and heavenly exercises by 
 any of the enemies of God and his grace. 
 
 The time of your " painful labours and sufferings 
 is no more," Rev. xiv. 13. " blessed are the dead that 
 
180 THE END OF TJME. 
 
 die in the Lord, for they rest from all their labours 
 that carry toil or fatigue with them : there shall be no 
 more complaints nor groans, no sorrow or crying : 
 the springs of grief are for ever dried up, neither 
 shall there be any more pain in the flesh or the spirit. 
 " God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes," and 
 death shall be no more, Rev. xxi. 4. 
 
 It is finished, said our blessed Lord on the cross : 
 It -is finished, may every one of his followers say at 
 the hour of death and at the end of time : my sins 
 ^and follies, my distresses and my sufferings are finish- 
 ed for ever, and the mighty angel swears to it that 
 the time of these evils is no longer : they are vanish- 
 ed and shall never return. O happy souls, who have 
 been so wise to count the short and uncertain number 
 of your days on earth, as to make an early provision 
 for a removal to heaven. Blest are you above ail the 
 powers of present thought and language. Days 
 and months and years, and all these short and painful 
 periods of time, shall be swallowed up in a long and 
 blissful eternity ; the stream of time which has run 
 between the banks of this mortal life, and bore you 
 along amidst many dangerous rocks of temptation, 
 fear and sorrow, shall launch you out into the ocean 
 of pleasures which have no period; those feiicities 
 must be everlasting, for duration has no limit there, 
 time with all its measures shall be no more. Amen. 
 
THE 
 
 €onqut£t Qbtt &eat$, 
 
 DESCRIBED IN A 
 
 FUNERAL DISCOURSE. 
 
 TO 
 
 Sir JOHN HARTOPP, Emit. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 ST|0 descend from such parents as yours, is no 
 «■* common favour of heaven : nor is it the blessing 
 
 7 ~ 
 
 of every descendant to inherit the natural virtues of 
 his progenitors ; yet I know that you esteem your 
 happiness incomplete, without the imitation of their 
 heavenly graces, and the attainment of their sublimes t 
 hopes. 
 
 Forgive me, dear Sir, if I take the liberty to say, 
 it is with a sort of fond pleasure that I have beheld 
 your victories over the most dangerous scenes and 
 temptations of. youth ; and every step in your pro- 
 gress towards perfect triumph, is an addition to my 
 joy. The world and the church hold their eyes 
 fixed upon you, while God and angels, and perhaps 
 
102 DEDICATION. 
 
 the souls of your sacred ancestors, look down from 
 on high to observe your conduct. Never was there 
 a more proper time to awaken your zeal for the reli- 
 gion of Christ, than in a day of spreading infidelity 
 and heathenism ; nor can there be a fitter season to 
 exert your utmost efforts for the support of serious 
 piety, than in an age of numerous and growing ini- 
 quities. Your just sense of religious liberty will shine 
 in its fairest glory, while you stand as a barrier against 
 the fearful inroads of a wild and unbounded licen- 
 tiousness. Nor can your attachment to the cause 
 and interest of the Protestant Dissenters appear with 
 more honour, than while they are defamed and 
 scorned by the proud and the profane, and while 
 their own imprudent contests stand in need of your 
 candour and charity. 
 
 Many are the advantages you enjoy for this pur- 
 pose. Divine Providence has placed your circum- 
 stances above the bribery of a flattering world, and a 
 corrupt generation. Your superior sense has no need 
 to stand in awe of fools, who make a mock of sin 
 and godliness. Let your native modesty and gentle- 
 ness then arm itself with an unshaken courage in the 
 cause of God ; and fear not the malicious scoff and 
 censure of sinners, since you have nothing to expect 
 or hope from them. 
 
 Go on, Sir, and prosper in the things, of heaven, 
 and become an example of shining holiness in a dege- 
 nerate world. Let the libertines of the nation know, 
 that you also dare to think freely for yourself, and 
 with all that freedom of thought you dare to chuse 
 the paths of your holy ancestors. 
 
 The peculiar favour of God has provided you a 
 consort, whose natural and pious accomplishments 
 
DEDICATION. IS3 
 
 and assistances will attend you through all the way. 
 r i hese will soften the seeming seventies of striet 
 religion with the tentlerest endearments of life, and 
 make the pleasure of it double and transcendent. 
 The name, the title, and the character of your ex- 
 cellent father deceased, require and demand an emi- 
 nent degree of goodness in his successor. The pious 
 lady, your mother (now in heaven) would have re- 
 joiced in the present prospect, and would have 
 purchased your felicity even with her own life ; and 
 your numerous relatives around you suspend their 
 happiness upon yours. The piety you have shewn 
 towards your worthy parents from your infancy, and 
 the affectionate honours which you now pay their 
 memory, give me further assurance tjjat this is your 
 aim, and your glorious ambition. And that you may 
 ever keep in mind their example and your duty, you 
 have commanded me to make public these Dis- 
 courses, which were framed on the occasion of their 
 decease. 
 
 You well know, Sir, I am no friend to loose pane- 
 gyric, nor am I wont to bestow it on the dead or the 
 living. What I have wntteh of the late Sir John 
 Hartopp, at the end of the Second Discourse, is the 
 first attempt that ever I made of concluding' a funeral 
 sermon with a distinct and particular character of the 
 deceased, through the whole space of twcnty-throf 
 years of my ministry ; and surely the world will not 
 envy nor detract from the just honours of a name so 
 much beloved. As for the lady, your mother, she 
 affected retirement to such a degree, that it would 
 have placed her in a wrong light to have drawn out 
 her virtues at length, and set them to public view. I 
 have therefore only interspersed a few hints of her emi- 
 
184 DEDICATION. 
 
 nent piety, as the text and argument led me into 
 them : and indeed this is the utmost that I have ever 
 done before on such occasions. 
 
 I have much reason to ask pardon that I have so 
 far enlarged these Discourses, and especially the last ; 
 for I hate the thought of making any thing in religion 
 heavy or tiresome. But having entertained myself 
 many a time with some of these meditations on the 
 business and the blessedness of separate spirits, I 
 took this opportunity of shewing them to the world, 
 Vushrined in the lustre of two such names as adorn 
 my title-page. 
 
 To render the reading of them yet more agreeable 
 to yourself and to all your friends, I have cast them 
 into distinct Sections, that my readers may leave off 
 almost where they please, and peruse so much of them 
 at one time as suits their present inclination and con- 
 venience. 
 
 You know, Sir, I pretend to no authority to pro- 
 nounce effectual blessings upon you ; but you will 
 accept the sincere good wishes of a man that loves 
 you, and is zealous for your felicity in the upper and 
 lower worlds. May the best of mercies descend daily 
 on yourself, your lady, and your little offspring ! 
 May the closet, the parlour, and public assemblies, 
 be constant witnesses of your piety ; and the house 
 where a Sir John Hartopp dwells, be a house of 
 prayer and of praise in every generation ; nor the 
 name be extinguished in your family till the heavens 
 be no more ! May the ladies, your sisters, live happily 
 under the sweet influence of that mutual affection 
 that has been always remarkably cultivated amongst 
 you! Their interests are your care ; and I am well 
 persuaded that their solicitude and tender concern for 
 
DEDICATION. 185 
 
 your welfare, will ever deserve and find such 
 returns of love, as I have loin-- observed with delight ! 
 May the prayers of your progenitors in past ages be 
 answered in hourly benefits descending on you all, 
 and be fruitful of blessings in ages yet to come ! Such 
 a lovely scene, with such a long and joyful prospect, 
 will advance the satisfactions of my life, and give 
 pleasure even in a dying hour, to him who had once 
 the honour to be your affectionate monitor, and must 
 ever write himself, 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Your obliged 
 
 Humble Servant, 
 
 a* 
 
 I. WATTS. 
 
 Julym,\722. 
 
 (8.) 
 
THE 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 TO THIS BOOK OF 
 
 Beat!) anti beaten; 
 
 When it was translated into the German Language, and 
 Published at Halle in Saxony, 1727. 
 
 TO THE READER. 
 
 TUT ERE is communicated to you a treatise in 
 4JEJI which the late pious Mr. Tranche, professor 
 of Divinity at Halle, found so much edification and 
 satisfaction, that he engaged an able person to 
 translate it into our German tongue, to make others 
 jyartake of the same spiritual benefit. This treatise 
 consists of Tito Funeral Sermons, which an English 
 divine, who perhaps is still living, composed on the 
 death of two eminent persons, which he enlarged 
 afterwards for their publication. The subject of 
 the first is Death, taken from 1 Cor. xv. 26. The 
 second is Heaven, from Heb. xii. 22. From this 
 last he takes an occasion of flying with his thoughts 
 into the blessed mansions of the just made perfect, 
 by giving us not only a very probable and beautiful 
 idea of the glory of a future life in general, but also 
 
183 GERMAIN PREFACE. 
 
 an enumeration of the many sorts of employments 
 and pleasures, that are to be met with there. 
 
 After the severed false notions people of different 
 complexions have of eternal life are laid open, the 
 author oj the Preface goes on and quotes some 
 German authors who have writ upon that subject : 
 and says at last, I hope no body will presume to aver 
 this doctrine to have been so far exhausted by those 
 authors, that nothing new could be said upon it. 
 For several learned writers in England, who in 
 meditating and searching after hidden truths, have 
 shewn an extraordinary capacity, prove the contrary ; 
 and among others there is the Treatise, called, The 
 Future State, published 1683, by a gentleman whose 
 name is concealed, which appeared in French 1700, 
 and is now priuted in German with a Preface of the 
 famous Dr. Pritius, sen. at Frankfurt ad Mcehurn* 
 There is among Sir R. JB lack mo re's Essays, one 
 upon the Future Beatitudes. The traces of these 
 two English gentlemen are followed* by our present 
 English divine JT. Watts, who, however, in many 
 points has out-done these his predecessors, and ad- 
 vanced a step farther in his contemplations. 
 
 Though the first sermon contains many elegaut 
 passages worthy to be read, yet the latter seems to 
 be a more elaborate piece, because it sets the doc- 
 trine of eternal life in a greater light, and enriches 
 it with many profitable inferences drawn from the 
 word of God. He proposes his excellent thoughts 
 in most emphatical terms, in that beautiful order 
 and with such a vivacity of style, (hat he keeps the 
 reader in a continual attention, and an eager desire 
 to read on. It is plain the authors mind was so 
 taken up with the beauty of heaven, that his mouth 
 
GERMAN PREFACE. 189 
 
 could not but speak from the abundance of his heart. 
 There is a secret unction in his expressions, which 
 leaves a sweet savour in the reader's heart, and 
 raises in him a desire after the blessed society he 
 speaks of. And though the reader should not 
 entirely agree with the author's notions, yet he will 
 not peruse this treatise without a particular edifica- 
 tion and blessing;. 1 cannot deny but the author's 
 conjectures may be sometimes carried a little too 
 far, but that doth not prejudice the subject in the 
 least. Besides, he is generally so happy as to find 
 some arguments for his probable notions in the word 
 of God, and to answer very dexterously all the 
 objections that can be made against him. 
 
 May the ever-living God give a blessing to this 
 work, arr^ grant that those sweet and relishing truths 
 proposed in these leaves, may make such an impres- 
 sion upon the minds of the readers as those noble 
 truths deserve. May he prevent all the abuse of 
 this delightful subject; and never permit it to be 
 turned into a mere dry or fruitless speculation ; but 
 may he inflame every reader with a holy desire after 
 a blessed eternity, and rouse and excite all those, 
 that have irtt begun yet to tread the path of salva- 
 tion, to enter into the same without delay; that they 
 may not rest in a mere delightful prospect of the 
 land of Canaan, nor be for ever excluded by their 
 unbelief from the eternal enjoyment of it. 
 
 Given at Halle, July lOtb, 1727. 
 
 JOHN JACOB RAMBACH 
 
 S. Tlieol. Prof. Orchnar. 
 
i&tmqiUBt ofctv ^caiij* 
 
 TUB INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Tf PERSUADE myself that none of yon are nn- 
 » acquainted with that mournful Providence that 
 calls me to the service of this day.* The words 
 which were borrowed from the lips of the dying, I 
 am desired to improve for the instruction and com- 
 fort of those that live. They are written in 
 
 1 Cor. xv. 26. 
 
 The last Enemy that shall be destroyed, is Death. 
 
 WHEN a nation hath lain for whole ages under 
 the power of some mighty tyrant, and has 
 suffered perpetual ravages from his hands, what 
 gladness runs through the land, at the sure predic- 
 tion of .his ruin ; and how is every inhabitant pleased 
 while he hears of the approaching downfal of bis 
 
 * Nov. 9th, 1711, the Lady Hartopp died, and this discourse 
 was delirered at Stoke-Newington, Nov. 2bth following. 
 
192 THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 
 
 great enemy ? " For this is lie that hath slain my 
 father or my mother, my children or iny dearest 
 "datives, and is still making havoc of the remnant of 
 my friends, while I myself stand in hourly danger." 
 This pleasure grows up into more perfect joy, when 
 we are assured this is the last tyrant that shall arise, 
 the last enemy that shall afflict us, for he shall have 
 no successor, and we shall be for ever free. Such 
 should be the rejoicing of all the saints, when they 
 hear so desirable and divine a promise as the words 
 of^ny text ; the last enemy that shall be destroyed, is 
 death. 
 
 To improve this glorious proposition, let us con- 
 sider these four things, with a reflection or two upon 
 each of them. 
 
 I. How death appears to be an enemy to the 
 saints. 
 
 II. Why it is called the last enemy, or the last 
 that shall be destroyed. 
 
 III. How it is to be destroyed, and what are the 
 steps or gradual efforts towards its destruction. 
 
 IV. Wliat are the advaiitagcs that the saints re- 
 ce\ve by the destruction of this last enemy. 
 
 SECT. I. 
 
 Death an Enemy even to Good Men. 
 
 The first enquiry is, " how, or in what sense death 
 appears to be an enemy to the saints." 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 193 
 
 That it is in general an enemy to human nature, is 
 sufficiently evident from its first introduction into the 
 world ; for it was brought in as an execution of the 
 first threatening given to Adam in paradise, Gen. ii. 17. 
 In the day thou eatest, thou shalt die. It came in as 
 a punishment for sin, and every punishment in some 
 respect opposes our interest, and our happiness. 
 When it seized on man at first, and planted the seeds, 
 of mortality in his nature, he then began to be de- 
 prived of that peace and health, that vigour and 
 immortality which he possessed before his fall, till at 
 last it brought him down to the dust ; and ever since 
 all the sons of Adam have '"ound and felt it an enemy 
 to their natures. 
 
 To sinners indeed it is an enemy in a more dreadful 
 sense, and its attendants are more-terrible a thousand- 
 fold. For besides all the common miseries of the 
 flesh which they sustain, it delivers over their spirits 
 into everlasting misery ; it. finishes their reprieve, and 
 their hope for ever ; it plunges them at once into all 
 the terrors of a most awakened conscience, and cuts 
 them oflffrom all the amusements and cares of this 
 life, which laid their guilt and their conscience asleep 
 for a season. Death consigns over a sinner to the 
 chains of the grave, and the chains of hell together, 
 and binds and reserves him a prisouer of despair for 
 the most complete torments of the second death. 
 
 But I would confine my discourse here only to 
 believers, so it is with respect to them this chapter is 
 written. I know death is often called their friend, 
 because it puts an end to their sins and sorrows ; but 
 this benefit arises only from the covenant of grace, 
 which sanctifies it to some good purposes to the chil- 
 dren of God. It is constrained to become their friend 
 
 (9.) 2 b 
 
I'M THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 
 
 in some instances, contrary to its own nature and its 
 original design : but there is reason enough, if we take 
 a survey of its own nature, and its present appear- 
 ances, to call it an enemy still, upon these following 
 accounts. 
 
 1. " Death has generally many terrible attendants 
 and forerunners when it comes ; terrible to nature 
 and the flesh of the most exalted christians." 
 
 Here should I begin to describe the long and dis- 
 mal train of death, the time would fail me. Shall 1 
 mention the sickness and the pain, the sharp anguish 
 oftnebody, and sometimes the sharper methods' of 
 medicine to relieve it, all which prove useless and 
 vain in that day? Shall I recount the tedious and 
 uneasy hours, the tiresome and sleepless nights, when 
 the patient longs for the slow return oi' the morning-; 
 and still when the light breaks, he rinds new uneasi- 
 ness, and wishes for the shadow and darkness again ? 
 Shall I speak of the dulness of the natural spirits, 
 and the clogs that hang heavy upon the souk in those 
 hours ; so that the better part of man is bound and 
 oppressed, and shut up, and cannot exert itself 
 agreeable to the character of an intellectual being? 
 
 Besides, all the designs of the mind are interrupted 
 and broken in death : all that the saint intended to 
 do for God, is cut off at once, and his holy purposes 
 are precluded, which often adds to the trouble of a 
 a dying christian, Psal. cxlvi, 4. When man returns 
 to his earth, in that very day his thoughts perish. 
 
 Shall I put you in mind of the sighs and sorrows 
 of dearest friends that stand around the bed all in 
 tears, and all despairing? Shall I speak of the last 
 convulsions of nature, the. sharp eon diet of the 
 extreme moments, and the struggling and painful 
 
THE CONQUEST OYER DEATH. 195 
 
 efforts of departing life, which none can Know tally 
 but those that have felt them, and none of the dead 
 come back to give us an account? Is it possible 
 for us to survey these scenes of misery, and not to 
 believe that the hand of an enemy has been tl>ere ? 
 The bodies of the saints are the temples of the Holt/ 
 Ghost, and the members of Christ, 1 Cor. vi. 15, 19. 
 Death murders these bodies, these members of the - 
 Lord, and ruins these temples to the dust, and may 
 well be called their enemy upon this account. 
 
 2. Death acts like an enemy, when it makes a 
 separation between the soul and the body. It di- 
 vides the nature of man in halves, and tears the two 
 constituent parts of it asunder. 
 
 Though this becomes an advantage to the soul of 
 the saint through the covenant and appointment of 
 grace, yet to have such an intimate union dissolved 
 between flesh and spirit, carries something of terror 
 in it ; and there may be an innocent reluctance in 
 the nature of the best Christian against such an 
 enemy as this : therefore St. Paid in 2 Cor. v. 4. 
 does not directly desire to be unclothed, but rather 
 to be clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed 
 up of life; that is, to be translated at once into an 
 immortal state. The soul and body have been long 
 acquainted with each other, and the soul has per- 
 formed almost all its operations by the use of the 
 senses and the limbs : it sees by the eye, it hears 
 by the ear, it acts by the hand, and by tire tongue 
 it converses. Now to be separated at once from 
 all these, and to be at once conveyed into a new 
 strange world, a strange and unknown state both of 
 being and action, has something in it so surprising, 
 
196 THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 
 
 that it is a little frightful to the nature of man, even 
 when he is sanctified and fitted for heaven. 
 
 And as the sonl is dismissed by death into a state 
 of separation, so the body, like a fallen tabernacle, 
 is forsaken, lies uninhabited and desolate. Shall I 
 lead your thoughts back to the bed where yonr 
 dear relatives expired, and give you a sight of the 
 dead, whose beauty is turning apace into corruption, 
 and all the loveliness of countenance fled for ever ? 
 The body, that curious engine of divine workman- 
 ship^ is become a moveless lump : death sits heavy 
 upon it, and the spfightliness and vigour of life is 
 perished in every feature and in every limb. Shall 
 we go down to the dark chambers of the grave, 
 where each of the dead lie in their cold mansions, 
 in beds of darkness and dust? The shadows of a 
 long evening are stretched over them, the curtains 
 of a deep midnight are drawn around them, the 
 worm lies under them, and the worm carers them. 
 
 A saint is no more exempted from all these fright- 
 ful attendants of death, than a sinner is. Those eyes 
 that have been perpetually lifted up to the God of 
 heaven in prayer, lie closed under ground, That 
 tongue that has spoken much for God iu the world, 
 lies silent in death. Those hands that have minis- 
 tered to the necessities of the saints, and those feet 
 that have gone often to the house of God, death 
 has confined them in his chains. Those natural 
 powers that have been active in the service of the 
 gospel, can speak, can move, can act no more 
 But I need not recite these things to you, the images 
 of them are to fresh and painful, and sit too heavy 
 upon your remembrance. 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 107 
 
 3. Death is an enemy to the saint, so far as it 
 hinders him from the enjoyment of his perfect hea- 
 ven, for it keeps one part of him in the grave for 
 many years or ages. 
 
 Let us think of the dust of the antient martyrs, 
 the dust of the apostles, and the holy prophets : 
 let us look many ages backward to the dust of 
 David and Abraham, and Noah, to the dust of 
 Adam the first of men : how long have their souls 
 waited in heaven, as it were in a widowed estate ? 
 How long lias their flesh been mingled with com- 
 mon earth, and lain confined under the bands of 
 death, useless to alt the glorious purposes of their 
 formation, and their being ? A tedious extent of 
 time ! Four or five thousand y^ears, wherein they 
 have done nothing for God in the body, and in the 
 body received nothing from God ? For death hin- 
 ders a believer from some of the business of heaven, 
 and some of the blessedness of it. 
 
 (1.) From some of the business of heaven: it is 
 only the soul that is then received to glory, and 
 dwells there alone for a season, while death keeps 
 the body prisoner in the grave ; it is only the soul 
 that glorifies its Maker in that upper world, the 
 world of spirits for the flesh lies silent in the dust : 
 the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate 
 thee, O Lord, Isa. xxxviii. 18. The body is re- 
 deemed with the blood of Christ, as well as the 
 soul ; but death puts fetters uoon it, and forbids it 
 to serve its Redeemer. 
 
 (2.) The believer is restrained also by death from 
 some of the blessedness of heaven ; it is only the 
 soul enjoys the delight ; and that too only in its 
 abstracted nature, and pure intellectual capacity ; 
 
198 THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 
 
 if is cut off by death from all tint riei, variety of 
 pleasure which rises from its communion with so 
 noble a frame as the body of man is. It has no 
 senses to receive the satisfactions that arise from 
 the material part of heaven : it has no eyes to behold 
 the glorified flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ ; no ears 
 to hear his voice ; no tongue to converse with its 
 Saviour. And though we are sure there is a holy 
 correspondence between Christ Jesus and separate 
 souls, for we are said to be present with the Lord, 
 ivhhi ive are absent from the body, 2 Cor. v. 8. yet 
 this correspondence cannot be so complete and 
 glorious, as it shall be, when with our eyes tee shall 
 see God in the form of a man. 
 
 It is granted, that hi the separate heaven of souls 
 is abundant pleasure, beyond what we can now 
 conceive or express ; and our friends, departed in 
 the faith, enjoy the delightful presence of their Lord, 
 and the heavenly converse of their fellow-spirits. 
 That honoured and deceased saint, whom we this 
 day mourn, dwells with that Jesus, with whom she 
 had long been acquainted : she converses with him 
 in heaven, whom she loved much upon earth : she 
 finds herself safe for ever in his hands, to whose 
 care she committed her immortal concerns ; and 
 she rejoices in the sight "of him above, with whom 
 she held many hours of sweet correspondence by 
 faith here below. Doubtless also, she holds sweet 
 conversation with the holy souls that went to heaven 
 before her: A soul so greatly desirous of spiritual 
 discourse as she was, so constantly prepared for 
 pious conference and mutual communications of 
 sacred knowledge, must needs enjoy that privilege, 
 and that pleasure, in that upper world, where there 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 199 
 
 is nothing' all-around her bat what is holy and divine. 
 But it is certain she cannot enjoy that perfection of 
 humble society with Christ in his glorified- human 
 nature, nor with fellow-saints, while she is deprived 
 of one part of herself, her body lying silent and mo- 
 tionless in the prison of the grave : and she yet waits 
 for the more complete satisfaction of all her hopes, 
 when death her last enemy shall be destroyed, and her 
 body redeemed from the dust, together with the 
 bodies of all the saints. This leads me to the next 
 particular. 
 
 4. " Death is an enemy to believers, because it 
 divides them for a season from the company of their 
 known and valuable friends, and parts the dearest 
 relatives asunder/' 
 
 Though dying saints be transmitted into better 
 company, even to the Spirits of the just made perfect, 
 yet it is a mournful thought to be separated so long 
 from those whom they loved with so strong and just 
 an affection. It adds a sharpness even to the last 
 agonies, when we think we must leave parents, chil- 
 dren, or Mends behind us, whom we love so tenderly ; 
 that we must leave them amidst the sorrows and 
 the temptations of a vain world and a corrupt age ; 
 that we must leave them struggling with all the diffi- 
 culties, the hardships, and the dangers that attend a 
 christian in his travels through this wilderness, and 
 not see their faces again in the flesh, nor converse 
 with them in the manner we were wont to do, till the 
 heavens be no more. 
 
 Upon this account also death is a worse enemy to 
 those that survive, for they sustain the biggest loss : 
 it deprives them of their dear and delightful relatives 
 without any recompence, for the world grows so much 
 
!200 THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 
 
 the more undesirable to a saint by the death of every 
 friend. Children are torn away from the embraces 
 of their parents, and the wife is seized from the 
 bosom. This is, as it were tearing the flesh asunder 
 of those whose hearts are joined ; this gives occasion 
 to bitter sorrows, to long and heavy complaints. 
 How suddenly are we sometimes deprived of the 
 desires of the eyes, and the comforts of life, the orna- 
 ments and the supports of our earthly state ? And 
 we have lost all their love, and their counsel, and 
 then* care ; all their sweet sympathy of joys and 
 sorrows, all their agreeable conversation and heavenly 
 advice. What a tedious way have we to walk 
 through without such a guide or helper ? We have lost 
 the benefit of their watchful eye, their holy jealousy 
 for our souls, their fervent and daily prayers. But 
 there are records in heaven, where all the prayers of 
 the saints are kept ; and God often turns over his 
 register, and, in distant successive years, pours down 
 blessings upon the posterity, and multiplies his graces 
 amongst them, in answer to the requests that were of- 
 fered upon earth by the saints that are now with God. 
 5. The last reason I shall mention to prove death 
 aii enemy to the saints, is the terror that it fills the 
 mind with long before-hand. There are but few that, 
 in their best estate on earth, are got quite above these 
 terrors, and there are none can say, " I have been 
 always free from them :" so that to the younger days 
 of their Christianity at least, all have been afraid of 
 death ; and these fears are enemies to our peace. 
 Some spend all their lives in this bondage of fear, 
 and that upon different accounts. 
 
 A christian of weaker faith cries out within himself, 
 " how shall I pass that awful moment that sets my 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER DEATii 201 
 
 soul naked before the eyes of a holy God, when I 
 know not whether I am clothed with the righteous- 
 ness of his Son or no, whether I shall stand the test 
 in that day ? I dread that solemn, that important 
 hour that shall put me into an unchangeable state of 
 miseries that are infinite, or of infinite blessedness. 
 How shall I that am a sinner, stand before that tribu- 
 nal and that Judge in whose sight no mortal can be 
 innocent ? My evidences from heaven are dark and 
 cloudy, that I cannot read them ; they have been 
 often sullied with fresh guilt, and I doubt whether I 
 am new-born or no, or reconciled to God. And 
 what if I should be mistaken in this affair of the 
 greatest moment ? The mistake can never be rectifi- 
 ed ; therefore I shake at the thoughts of death, that 
 hour of decision ; for my faith is* weak." 
 
 Another saint, of a strong and lively faith, but of a 
 timorous temper, cries out, " How shall I bear the 
 agonies and the pangs of death ? I am not afraid to 
 enter into eternity : the grace of Christ and his gos- 
 pel, have given me hope and courage enough to be 
 dead ; but I am still afraid of dying : it is a hard and 
 painful work, how shall I sustain the sharp conflict ? 
 I shiver at the thoughts of venturing through that cold 
 flood that divides betwixt this wilderness and the 
 promised land." 
 
 Another christian is too much unacquainted with the 
 world of spirits, with the nature of the separate 
 heaven, with the particular business and blessedness 
 of holy souls departed ; and he is afraid to venture 
 out of this region of flesh and blood, into a vast and 
 unknown world. Though he has good hope through 
 grace, that he shall arrive safe at heaven \, yet the 
 heavenly country is so unknown a land, and th© 
 
 (9.) 2 c 
 
202 THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 
 
 valley of entrance to it so dark, that he fears to pass 
 through the shadow of death. 
 
 Another is terrified at the thoughts of death, 
 because he knows not how to part with his dear 
 relatives in the flesh, and to leave them exposed to 
 an unkind age and a thousand dangers. " If I had 
 none to leave behind me, I could die with cheerful- 
 ness ; but while I think of such a separation, the 
 thoughts of death has terror in it.** 
 
 Thus upon various accounts a good man may 
 hav^ fearful apprehensions of dying; and that which 
 carries so much terror about it, may well be called 
 an enemy. 
 
 Before we proceed any further, let us make two 
 reflections on the first general head. 
 
 Reflection I. If death be an enemy to the 
 best of men in so many respects, then we may infer 
 the %reat evil of sin : for it was sin that brought 
 death into this our world ; Rom. v. 12. By one 
 man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ; 
 and so death passed upon all men, for that all have 
 sinned. 
 
 We are too ready to conceive a slight opinion of 
 the evil of sin, because it is so common to the best 
 of men, and so constant an attendant on human 
 nature daily and hourly ; we entertain too gentle and 
 harmless thoughts of it, because its biggest evil is of 
 a spiritual kind, and invisible; we see not that in- 
 finite majesty which it dishonours, that spotless 
 holiness of God which it offends, the glory and 
 perfection of that law which is broken by it: we 
 can take but short and scanty notices of the injury 
 that it does to God the supreme spirit, while we are 
 shut ut» in tabernacles of flesh. But here m these 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 203 
 
 scenes of death, we may survey the sensible and 
 mighty injury that sin has done to the nature of man, 
 and thence infer how offensive it is to God. By our 
 eyes and our ears we may be terribly convinced, 
 that it is no little evil that could occasion such 
 spreading and durable mischief. 
 
 We cannot frame a just notion of what man was 
 in his state of perfect innocency, in his original 
 beauty, and honour, and immortal frame ; and 
 therefore we cannot so well judge of the vastness 
 of the loss we sustain by sin ; but we can see and 
 feel the formidable attendants of death, and learn 
 and believe that it is a root of unknown poisoned 
 bitterness, that has produced such cursed fruit: 
 especially if we remember that all the sorrows be- 
 fore described, fall upon the saints themselves, even 
 where sin is pardoned, and death has lost its sting. 
 But if we descend in contemplation to the endless 
 and unknown misery that waits upon the death of 
 a sinner, and say, " All these are the effects of sin ;" 
 how inexpressibly dreadful will the cause appear ? 
 The wise man has pronounced them fools, by in- 
 spiration, that make a mock at such mischief, Prov. 
 xiv. 9. 
 
 Reflection IT. We may here learn the great- 
 ness of the love of Christ that would venture into 
 the land of death and conflict with this mighty 
 enemy, and yield to the power of it for a season, 
 for our sakes. Greater love hath no man than this, 
 that a man lay down his lifejor his friends, John xv. 
 13. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he 
 died for us; 1 John iii. 16. Rom. v 8. 
 
 Many terrible attendants of death did our Lord 
 meet and struggle with, beyond what any of his 
 
204 THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 
 
 saints can feel. Death, like a lion, ran furious 
 upon him, as it does upon a sinner, its proper prey. 
 He met death in its full strength and dominion, for 
 he had all our sins upon him ; aud death had its 
 own sharp sting- when our Lord entered the combat. 
 There was the wrath of God which was threatened 
 in the broken law to mingle with his pangs and 
 agonies of nature ; this made his soul exceeding 
 sorrowful ; all his inward powers were amazed, and 
 his heart oppressed with heaviness : Mark xiv. 33, 
 34. He was almost overwhelmed in the garden, 
 before the thorns or the nails came near him ; and 
 on the cross he complains of the forsakings of God 
 his almighty friend, when death his mighty enemy 
 was just upon him ; and all this (saith he to every 
 believer) J bore for thy sake : my love ivas stronger 
 than death. 
 
 SECT. II. 
 
 Death is the last Enemy. 
 
 1 proceed now to the second general proposed, 
 and that is to inquire, in what sense death is said 
 to be the last enemy, or the last that shall be de- 
 stroyed : for we may join this word last, either to 
 death, or to destruction ; and in each sense it affords 
 comfort to the saints. 
 
 1. It is the last enemy that the saints have to 
 grapple with in this world. The three great ad- 
 versaries of a Christian are the flesh, the world, and 
 the devil, and tbev assault him often in this life. 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 205 
 
 Death comes behind, and brings up the rear ; the 
 saint combats with this enemy, and finishes all the 
 war. Every believer lias listed himself under the 
 banner />f Christ, who is the captain of his salvation. 
 When he first gives himself up to the Lord, he' re- 
 nounces every thing that is inconsistent with his 
 faith and hope, he abandons his former slavery, 
 undertakes the spiritual warfare, and enters the field 
 of battle. 
 
 It is a necessary character of the followers of 
 Cnrist, that they fight with the flesh, subdue corrupt 
 nature, suppress their irregular appetites, give daily 
 wounds to the body of sin, Col. iii. 5. Rom. viii. 13. 
 They fight against this world ; they refuse to com- 
 ply with the temptations of it, when it would allure 
 them astray from the path of ditty ; they defy its 
 frowns and discouragements, and break through all 
 its oppositions in their way to heaven, .lames iv. 4. 
 They resist Satan when he tempts them to sin, and 
 vanquish him by the sword of the spirit, the word of 
 God, Eph. iv. 11, 12, 17. and when he accuses 
 them, and attempts to bring terror into their souls, 
 they overcome him, and cast him down by the blood 
 of the Lamb, Rev. xii. 10, 1 1 . They are made con- 
 querors over these adversaries in the strength of 
 Christ. Now the pangs of death are the last 
 troublers of their peace, death is the last enemy 
 that attacks them, and soic° hav Q very terrible con- 
 flicts with it. 
 
 It was in these agonies, in this sharp contention, 
 the words of my text were uttered bv that honoured 
 saint whose memory will be always precious, and 
 whose loss we this day mourn. This cheerful lan- 
 guage of hope among many other scriptures, broke 
 
206 THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 
 
 out from her lips. Tims lively was her faith in a 
 dying hour. Methinks I hear her speaking the 
 words with a firm trust in the promise ; the last 
 enemy that shall be destroyed is death. And this 
 encouraged her onward through the few remaining 
 struggles of life and pain. It is as if 'she had said, 
 " I have given myself up long ago to Christ, I en- 
 gaged myself young in his service, I have fought 
 with sin, I have learned to subdue flesh and sense, 
 and to live by the faith of the Son of God : I have 
 n«t courted the flatteries of the world, the vain 
 shews of life ; and I have been enabled to despise 
 the frowns of it, and been kept stedfast in my pro- 
 fession, in the most discouraging and the darkest 
 times. Through t-he grace of Christ I have over- 
 come the evil one ; there remains but one enemy 
 more, whose name is Death ; and I trust in the 
 same grace still to obtain complete victory." Re- 
 joice, ye dear relatives, let all the friends of' the 
 deceased rejoice, her name is row written down in 
 heaven amongst the overcomes 
 
 2. Death may be called the last enemy, oecause 
 it is not utterly destroyed till the resurrection, till 
 Christ hath done all his work upon earth, till he has 
 subdued all his other adversaries, and made use of 
 death as his slave to destroy many of them. It k 
 in this sense especially that the words of my text 
 are written by St. Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 24, 25. Then 
 cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the 
 kingdom to God, even the Father ; when he shall 
 have put down all rule and all authority, and all 
 power ; for he must reign till he hath put all enemies 
 raider his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed 
 is death. 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 207 
 
 With regard to each particular Christian, all other 
 enemies are destroyed when he dies, for whither he 
 goes they cannot come ; he puts off the body of 
 flesh and of sin, together ; he leaves every corrup- 
 tion behind him, when he ascends to the company 
 of the spirits of the just made perfect. The smiles 
 and the frowns of this vain and vexing world, arc 
 too far off to influence the inhabitants of heaven ; 
 and satan the tempter and accuser, is for ever forbid 
 entrance at the gates of that holy city. But death 
 holds one part of the saint in his prison, the grave : 
 and though the departed soul has overcome the 
 terrors of this enemy, and triumphs in this expres- 
 sion, O death, where is thy sting ? yet the body is 
 confined as a prisoner under his power : but the 
 hour is coming, when those that are dead shall hear 
 the voice of the Son of God, and live. All the 
 prisons of the saints shall be broke to pieces, and 
 burnt up, and the keeper destroyed for ever. 
 
 Let us make these two reflections on the second 
 general head of this discourse. 
 
 Reflection I. What abundant encouragement 
 may we derive from hence, to engage us betimes in 
 a war vith all the other enemies of our salvation, 
 that having overcome them, we may be assured 
 death is the last enemy we shall meet with : and 
 then also we may face death with a braver courage, 
 may conflict with it with better success, may van- 
 quish it by a lively faith, and rejoice in the prospect 
 of its final destruction. The same armour of God, 
 the same divine weapons, and the same Almighty 
 assistances by which we have subdued our former 
 adversaries, Sin, Satan, and the World, shall be 
 sufficient to gain this conquest too. We cannot 
 
208 THE CONQUEST OVtR DEATH. 
 
 begin the holy w ana re too soon ; none ot us. are too 
 young to be assaulted by death ; but let it come 
 never so early in the morning of our days, it is the 
 last enemy that we can fear, if we are listed in the 
 army of Christ, and have begun the glorious war. 
 
 I would address myself to the younger branches 
 of the mourning house, and say, have ye had such 
 a noble example of victory over sin and death in 
 vain ? Will ye basely submit to the slavery of the 
 flesh, and yield tamely to the oppositions of this 
 world, which were so bravely resisted by her that 
 is gone before you ? Will ye love this world, which 
 is at enmity with God, and has ever been at enmity 
 with all the saints? Are ye content to have your 
 names for ever excluded from that honourable list 
 of conquerors, where the names of your ancestors 
 shine before the throne of God, and are recorded 
 with honour in the memory of his churches ? Think 
 how dreadful a moment that will be, when you shall 
 look death in the face, if ye have not begun to wage 
 war with sin and satan before ! how dreadful to 
 have many enemies at once assaulting you ! the 
 lusts of your own heart, raging desires after the 
 enjoyments of this world, the horrors of conscience, 
 the bufferings of the devil, and the pangs of death. 
 What will ye do in the day of such a visitation ? 
 And remember that though death be the last enemy 
 of the saints it is not thus with sinners ; it does but 
 transmit them into the world of damned spirits, 
 where enemies multiply upon them, and grow more 
 outrageous. Besides the bitter anguish of their own 
 conscience, they have the wrath of a God whom they 
 have long provoked, and the malice of evil angels 
 their tormentors, to conflict with to all eternity. 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 209 
 
 But we nope oelter things of you, and things that ac- 
 company salvation, though we thus speak, Heb. vi. 9. 
 
 Reflection II. What divine comfort is there 
 in my text for aged Christians and dying saints, who 
 have been watchful and vigorous in their war with 
 sin, and gained many victories over this world and 
 satan, who is called the god of it ? What a delight- 
 ful view such persons have, when upon the borders ' 
 of life ! Bear up with divine boldness, ye heirs of 
 glory ! for you have but one adversary more to fight 
 with: let your faith, and patience, and holy courage, 
 hold out a little longer, and victory and triumph are 
 yours for ever. There is no enemy lies in ambush 
 behind the tomb, when you have passed the bar of 
 death, you are out of the reach of all adversaries. 
 Beyond the grave the coast is* all clear for ever : 
 the country flows witli rich and untasted pleasures ; 
 every inhabitant is an inward friend, and peace and 
 joy and love smile in every countenance. 
 
 Will an old saint complain that be finds many 
 infirmities attend his age, that his senses are feeble, 
 that his eyes are dim, that satan now and then arises 
 from hell and casts a gloom and darkness around 
 his soul, and buffets him sorely in that darkness ? 
 Will he complain that his natural spirits are heavy, 
 that the world is troublesome to him, and- every 
 thing in life is painful ? Methinks it is a consolation 
 equal to all these sorrows, that he is just entering 
 into the last field of battle : the last hour of contro- 
 versy is begun ; a few strokes more will decide the 
 strife, and make him an eternal conqueror. Behold 
 I come quickly, saith our Lord, holdfast that ivhich 
 thou hast gained, that no man take thy crown, Rev. 
 iii. 11. 
 
 (9-) 2 d 
 
210 THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 
 
 SECT. III. 
 
 The Destruction of Death 
 
 The third thing we are to enquire, is, How death 
 is destroyed, and what are the steps, or gradual 
 efforts towards its destruction. 
 
 The person that has this honour put upon him 
 to subdue this universal tyrant, is our Lord Jesus 
 Christ : so the words inform us all round my text. 
 Though his mediation for sinners was sufficient to 
 have prevailed with God to destroy death at once, 
 yet it was agreed upon in the eternal counsels, that 
 for wise ends and purposes it should be done by 
 degrees. His blood was of sufficient value to have 
 procured for his elect a deliverance from every 
 enemy at once, and a translation to heaven as soon 
 as they were born ; but it was wisely concerted 
 betwixt the Father and the Son, that we should 
 pass through temptations, difficulties, and death 
 itself; that by feeling the sharp assaults of our 
 enemies, we might be better acquainted with the 
 greatness of our salvation, and pay a larger tribute 
 of thauks and honours to our deliverer. 
 
 The steps whereby death is destroyed, are these : 
 
 1 It is subdued by the death of Christ ; its sting 
 ivag then taken away, that is, the guilt of sin, 1 Cor. 
 xv. 55, 56, 57. The sting" of death is sin, a?id the 
 strength of sin is the law : but thanks be to God 
 who i>'iveth ns the victory through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. Which verses may be thus explained : 
 death was the punishment threatened by the law 
 for sin, but Christ, as our Surety, having sustained 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH 21 \ 
 
 the execution of that tnreacenmg, and answered the 
 law by a satisfaction equal to the offence, death has 
 no more power over him. God has raised him up, 
 having loosed the pai?is of death, because it ivas not 
 jyossible that he should be holden of it, Acts ii. 24. 
 And as Christ by his dying is said to finish i?'a?is- 
 gression, and make an end of sin, because he has 
 taken away its power to condemn believers, though 
 he has not yet utterly destroyed its being, so he is 
 said to have abolished death, 2 Tim. i. 10. Because 
 he has so far diminished and made void its power, 
 that it shall not do any final mischief to the saints. 
 It is like a serpent whose sting is taken away, and 
 whose teeth are broken out : it may fright us, and 
 do us some injury, but it cannot inflict a venomous 
 or. fatal wound. Now the believer, by a lively faith, 
 shares in this victory of Christ over death, and gives 
 thanks to God for it. He knows that though it 
 may hurt his body, and bring it down to the grave 
 for a season, yet it cannot send the soul to destruc- 
 tion, nor confine the body to the dust any longer 
 than Christ shall permit. 
 
 2. Death is taken captive and enslaved by Christ 
 at his resurrection and ascension, and made to serve 
 his holy purposes, Psal. lxviii. IB. Thou hast ascend- 
 ed on high, thou hast led captivity captive. This is 
 spoken of our Lord Jesus, who has taken into his own 
 dominion, death and the devil, who led the world 
 captive. The enemy is not escaped out of the hands 
 of this conqueror, but is put under his yoke, and 
 constrained into his service. 
 
 Death, in its first character, was the very threaten- 
 ing and curse of the law of God, and includes in it all 
 misery ; but Christ having borne the curse, has re- 
 
212 THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 
 
 deemed his people from it, Gal. iii. 13. And now he 
 has taken as many as lie pleases of the threatening)? 
 and terrors of the law into his own new covenant, 
 the covenant of grace ; and has sanctified their nature, 
 and made them become blessings to the saint ; He 
 has turned the curse into a blessitiq-, Dent. xiii. 5. so 
 that afflictions, and pains, and sorrows, and death 
 itself, are no longer a curse to them, for they are or- 
 dained by the wisdom and grace of Christ to promote 
 their best interest. 
 
 | lOeath, in its original design, was the under servant 
 of God's avenging justice : it was the jailor to bring 
 the soul out of the body before the divine tribunal, 
 there to receive its condemnation to hell. It was the 
 executioner both to torment and to destroy the flesh, 
 and send the spirit into everlasting misery. But 
 Christ having answered all the demands of this aveng- 
 ing justice, has also purchased the sovereignty over 
 death ; and though sometimes, when it seizes a 
 saint, it may for the present signify his displeasure, 
 as in 1 Cor. xi. 30. yet it always fulfils the designs 
 of his love, and conveys them into his own delight- 
 nil presence : therefore as soon as we are absent 
 from the body, we are said to be present ivith the 
 Lord, 2 Cor. v. 8. and when we depart from the 
 flesh, it is to be with Christ, Phil. i. 23. Death was 
 ordained at first to be a slave to 3atan ; by the 
 righteous appointment of God, both death and the 
 devil are executioners of his wrath ; and satan is 
 said to have some power over death, Heb. ii. 14. 
 But Christ, by dying, has subdued satan, spoiled him 
 of his destroying weapons, has made void hi* au- 
 thority, especially with regard to believers ; he has 
 taken death out of his power, and manages it himself: 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 213 
 
 and thus he delivers them ivho throw? fi fear of death 
 icere held in a long and painful bondage, ver. 15. 
 
 It is in such views as these that the apostle says 
 to the Corinthian believers, all things are yours, things 
 present, and things to come, this world in the joys or 
 sorrows of it, life and death, all are yours, and ye are 
 Christ's, 1 Cor. iii, 22, 23. You have an interest and 
 a share in the possessions and the power of Christ 
 over all things, so far as may promote your happi- 
 ness : Christ makes all things (even death itself) 
 work together for the good of his people, Rom. viii. 
 28. By death he puts an end to the body of sin, 
 and frees the soul from all those raffling passions, 
 those inquietudes of the blood, and disorders of 
 nature ! those strong and perverse appetites that cost 
 the christian so much toil to subdue, and brought 
 him so often under guilt, darkness and sorrow. By 
 death he delivers the believer from the pains and in- 
 firmities of the body, the perpetual languishing^ of a 
 weakly constitution, and the anguish of acute disea- 
 ses. He constrains death to give the weary saint 
 release from all the miseries of the present state, and 
 to hide him from the fury of the oppressor. The grave 
 is God's hiding-place from the storms and tumults of 
 the world ; there the weary are at rest, and the wicked 
 cease from troubling : and instead of consigning ue 
 over to the full malice of the devil, death is made a 
 means to convey us away from all his assaults and 
 translate us into that country where he has no power 
 to enter. And when the soul is dismissed into the 
 bosom of.a reconciled God by the ministry of death ; 
 the body is put to rest in the grave ; the grave which 
 is sanctified into a bed of rest for all the followers of 
 Christ, since their Lord and master has lain there 
 
214 THE CONQUEST OVER DEATIi. 
 
 In the gospel of Christ, the name of death vs 
 
 altered into sleep. Christ, who has - I it, 
 
 seems to 1 given it this new name, that if might 
 
 not have a frightful sound in the ears of his beloved. 
 
 Though it was sometimes called sleep in the Old 
 
 Testament, yet that chiefly regarded the silence, 
 
 and darkness, and inactivity of that state ; whereas 
 
 in the New Testament, in the 12th of Dan. it is 
 
 called sleep, to denote that there is an awaking time. 
 
 The antient Christians upon this account, called the 
 
 church-yard where they buried the dead, a sleeping- 
 
 place. And though the grave may be termed the 
 
 prison of death, yet death is not lord of the prison; 
 
 he can detain the captives there but during the 
 
 pleasure of Christ, for he who is alive foi evermore, 
 
 has the keys of death and hell, that is, of the separate 
 
 state, Rev. i. 18. 
 
 Now this is the true reason why Christians have 
 spoken so many kind things of death, which is the 
 king of terrors to a natural man. They call it a 
 release from pain and sin, a messenger of peace, 
 the desired hour, and the happy moment. All this 
 is spoken while they behold it with an eye of faith 
 in the hands of Christ, who has subdued it to him- 
 self, and constrained it to serve the designs of his 
 love to them. 
 
 3. When it has done all Christ's work, it shall 
 be utterly destroyed. After the resurrection, there 
 shad be no more dying. The saints shall rise im- 
 mortal and dwell in heaven for ever, in the complete 
 enjoyment of all that is included in the name of life. 
 As the angel in prophecy lifts up his hand, and 
 swears by him that lives for ever and ever, that 
 time shall be no longer, Rev. x 6. so Christ Jesus, 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 215 
 
 flit* Lord of angels, shall as it were, pronounce with 
 a sovereign voice, that death shall be no more. He 
 shall send the great archangel with the trumpet of 
 God ; it shall sound through the deepest caverns of 
 the grave, and shall summon death from its inmost 
 recesses. The tyrant shall hear and obey, and 
 restore all his captives out of prison ; the dead shall 
 hear the voice of the Son of God, and live, John v. 
 25, 28, 29. They that have done good, to the resur- 
 rection of life, and they that have done evil, to the 
 resurrection of 1 damnation. After this our Lord has 
 no employment for death, his slave ; the bodies of 
 men shall die no more ; there shall be no more any 
 state of separation between the flesh and spirit, Rev. 
 xx. 14. And death and hell [or Hades] were cast 
 into the lake of fire ; that is, there shall be no more 
 death, no grave, no separate state of sonl«, all these 
 shall be for ever destroyed. 
 
 Reflection I. We may infer from this third 
 general head, the great power and glory of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ ; we may learn the honour that is due 
 to him from mortals ; it is he that has subdued 
 death, and that by his own dying. A wondrous 
 method of victory ! A surprising conquest ! and 
 he lives for ever to destroy it in his appointed time. 
 How great and honourable must he be in the eyes 
 of all mankind, who has vanquished so tmiversal a 
 conqueror ? How desirable is his person, and how 
 delightful the sound of his name to every believer ! 
 For he suppresses all their enemies, and shall de- 
 stroy them even to the last. How well does he 
 fulfil the great engagement ! Hosea xiii. 14. J will 
 ransom them from the power of the grave : I will 
 redeem them from death : O death, 1 will be thy 
 
210 THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 
 
 plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction; Repent 
 ance shall be hid from mine eyes* Let us salute him 
 the Prince of life, Acts iii. 15. and adore him under 
 that character. He dispossesses death of all its do- 
 minions. He approves himself a complete Saviour 
 of all his saints, and a Redeemer of his captive 
 friends. 
 
 II. Reflection. We may learn also from this 
 head of discourse, the power and excellency of the 
 gospel of Christ, for it discovers to us how this great 
 enemy is vanquished, and when it shall be destroyed ; 
 ai*d thus it lays a foundation for courage at death, 
 and gives us assurance of a joyful rising-day. Death 
 being abolished by the mediation of Christ, immorta- 
 lity and life are brought to light by his gospel, 2 Tim. 
 i. 10. that is, there is a brighter discovery of the 
 future state, and of everlasting happiness, than ever 
 before was given to the world. 
 
 Here in the name of Christ, and of his gospel, 
 we may give a challenge to all other religions, and 
 say, which of them has borne up the spirit of man so 
 high above the fears of death as this has done? or 
 has given us so fair, so rational, and so divine an 
 account how death has been overcome by one man, 
 and how by faith in his name we may all be made 
 overcomers ? How vain are the trifles with which the 
 heathen priests and their prophets amused the cre- 
 dulous multitude ? What silly and insipid fables do 
 they tell us of souls passing over in a ferry-boat to the 
 other world, and describe the fields of pleasure, and 
 the prisons of pain in that country of ghosts and 
 shadows, in so ridiculous a manner, that the wise 
 men of their own nations despised the romance, and 
 few were stupid enough to believe it all. If we 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 217 
 
 consult the religion ot then* phnosopncrs, ney give 
 us but a poor, lame, and miserable account of the 
 state after death. Some of them denied it utterly, 
 and others rave at random in mere conjectures, and 
 float in endless uncertainties. The courage which 
 some of their heroes professed at the point of death, 
 was rather a stubborn indolence, than a rational and 
 well-founded valour ; and not many arrived at this, 
 hardiness of mind, except those that supposed their 
 existence ended with their life, and thought they 
 should be dissolved into their first atoms. Aristotle, 
 one of the greatest men amongst them,, tell us, that 
 " futurity is uncertain," and calls death the most 
 terrible of all lerribles. 
 
 If we search into the religion of the Jews which 
 was a scheme of Gods own contrivance and revela- 
 tion to men, we find the affairs of a future world lay 
 much in the dark ; their consciences were not so 
 thoroughly purged from the guilt of sin, but that some 
 terrors hung about them, as appears from Heb. x. 
 1 — 3. and having so faint and obscure notices, of the 
 separate state of souls, and of the resurrection, these 
 were the persons who in a special manner, through 
 the fear of death, were all their life-time subject to 
 bondage, Heb. ii. 15. 
 
 But Christianity lays a fair and rational foundation 
 for our confidence and triumph in the dying hour. It 
 shews how guilt is removed by an all-sufficient sacri- 
 fice ; and makes it evident that no hell, no vengeance, 
 no shadows of misery await the believer in that in- 
 visible world. This makes the christian venture into 
 it -with a certain boldness, and a becoming presence 
 of mind. The doctrine of Christ shews us how the 
 sting of death is taken away, and calls us to fight 
 
 (10.) 2 E 
 
M8 THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 
 
 with a vanquished enemy, a serpent without a sting : 
 it gives us assurance that we shall rise again from the 
 dust with bodies fresher and fairer, glorious in their 
 frame, and their constitution immortal ; for death shall 
 be 'no more. Exalted by so sublime a hope, what 
 is there in death sufficient to depress our spirits, if 
 our faith were but equal to this admirable doctrine ? 
 The holy apostles are witnesses, the noble army of 
 martyrs are witnesses, and many a saint in our day 
 is a witness to this truth, and gives honour to this gos- 
 pel. % How many thousands have met death, and all 
 its frightful attendants, with a steady soul r and a 
 serene countenance ; and have departed to heaven 
 with songs of praise upon their lips, a smile upon 
 their faces, and triumph in their eyes? And this was 
 not owing, to any extravagant flights of enthusiasm, 
 nor the fires of an enflamed fancy, but it has been per- 
 formed often, and may be done daily, by the force 
 of a regular faith, on the most solid and reasonable 
 principles ; for such are the principles of the gospel 
 of Christ. 
 
 SECT. IV. 
 
 Blessings gained by the Destruction of Death. 
 
 The fourth and last general head of discourse, 
 is an enquiry into the advantages which the saints 
 receive by the destruction of this last enemy. 
 
 This is a large and endless field, for it includes a 
 great part of their final happiness in heaven. But 
 I shall attempt to mention briefly a few of the 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 219 
 
 benefits that attend my text, and that without a nice 
 distinction of particulars. 
 
 When death is destroyed, we shan share in the 
 joy and triumph of Christ for absolute conquest 
 over all his enemies ; for there is scarce any glory 
 given to Christ, considered as man, but the saints 
 are said to be humble partners in it, or at least to 
 enjoy the resemblance. Is he appointed the Judge 
 of all ? It is promised also t ■> the saints that they 
 shall judge angels, and the twelve tribes of Israel. 
 Do ice suffer with him ? [j We shall also reign with 
 him. If we conquer death by faith, we shall rise 
 and triumph. Here we labour and fight with many 
 adversaries, and we think we "have routed them, but 
 they rally again, and give us fresh vexation, so that 
 we hardly know how to attempt a song of victory 
 on this side the grave. Besides, death still remains 
 for our trial and conflict : but there we shall rejoice 
 over all our enemies, subdued, destroyed, and abo- 
 lished for ever. - 
 
 Then God will be all in all to his saints* This 
 is a consequent whicli St. Paul mentions in the 
 verses where my text is : God will manage the 
 affairs of his heavenly kingdom in a more immediate 
 way, than he has managed his kingdom on earth. 
 Christ having destroyed 'all the enemies of his 
 church, and presented it safe before the Father, 
 has finished all those divine purposes for which the 
 mediatorial kingdom was entrusted with him : then 
 he shall resign his commission to the Father again ; 
 and the ever-blessed God shall in a more immediate 
 and absolute manner reign over all the creation. 
 He shall more immediately impress devils and dam- 
 ped spirits with a sense of infinite wrath ; and with 
 
220 THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 
 
 a more immediate sense of Ins 'ove and eternal 
 favour, shall lie for ever bless all the inhabitants of 
 heaven. So much us this seems to be implied in 
 the words of the apostle, 1 Cor. xv. 24, 2-5, Sec. 
 But it is impossible that in this state ve .should 
 know either the full extent, or the just limitations 
 of that promise, God shall be all in all. Our 
 honoured and departed friend had these words 
 dwelling upon her heart ; these were often in her 
 lips in the days of her faith and hope, and in the 
 hour§ of her passage through the dark valley : she 
 enjoys part of the pleasure of them in her present 
 heaven, and with pleasure she expects the more 
 absolute accomplishment, when the resurrection 
 shall complete the blessedness of all the saints. 
 
 Another consequent of the destruction of death, 
 is the employment of all the powers of human nature 
 in the service of God, and they shall be neither weak 
 nor weary. For all the inconveniences that attend 
 mortality shall be swallowed up and lost for ever. 
 
 iAlas, how poor and imperfect is the service which 
 our bodies yield to God in this world ! How hea- 
 vily do our souls complain of the clog of this ilesh ; 
 and move onwards heavily in the discharge of duty! 
 and in the grave the body is quite cut off from all 
 service. But when death shall be dispossessed, 
 when we shall arise from the dust, and put on 
 bodies"? of glory ; then with our whole natures, and 
 with all their powers, we shall do honour to God 
 our creator, our redeemer, and our king. The time 
 will come when we shall hunger no more, neither 
 thirst any more ; and the refreshments o( sleep shall 
 be no more necessary to support life. A\ hen death 
 shall be destroyed, sleep, the image and picture of 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 221 
 
 death, shall be destroyed too. There shall be 
 nothing that looks like death in all that vital world 
 that world of immortality. We shall serve the Lord 
 day and night in his temple ; that is, continually, 
 for there shall be no night there, Rev. v,ii. 15, 16. 
 and xxi. 2o. 
 
 Then we shall taste all the true blessedness that 
 human nature is capable of, and that without danger 
 of excess or sin. When God first united these two 
 pieces of his workmanship, the soul and body, and 
 composed a man, he designed him the subject of 
 various pleasures, wherein each part should have 
 been subservient to the other, to render the felicity 
 of the creature perfect. It is sin and death that 
 have entered into our natures, and prevented this 
 noble design iri our present state ? but the counsel 
 of the Lord shall stand. And when he raises up 
 the body from the grave, it shall leave all the seeds 
 of death behind it. The faculties and the senses 
 shall aw r ake in all their original sprightliness and 
 vigour, and our future heaven shall be furnished 
 with objects suited to entertain those powers, and 
 to convey intense pleasure to glorified minds, with- 
 out danger of satiety or weariness. When the time 
 comes that there shall be no more death, God shall 
 wipe away all tears from our eyes ; there shall be no 
 sorrow nor crying, nor any more pain : for the former 
 things are passed away ; and he that sits upon the 
 throne shall say behold 1 make all things new ! 
 Rev. xxi. 4, 5. 
 
 Then shall we enjoy the constant society of our 
 best friends, and dearest acquaintance ; those that 
 have arrived at the new Jerusalem themselves, and 
 have assisted us in our travels thither. And we 
 
222 THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 
 
 shall delightfully entertain, and be entertained -with 
 the mutual narratives of divine grace, and the wise 
 and holy methods of providence, whereby we have 
 been conducted safe through all the fatigues and 
 dangers of the wilderness to that heavenly country. 
 
 And that which shall add an unknown relish to all 
 the former blessings, is the full assurance that we 
 shall possess them for ever. For every one of our 
 enemies are then destroyed, and the last of them is 
 death. Here on earth it is a perpetual pain to the 
 mind to think, that those whom we love are mortal ; 
 the next moment may divide them from us far as the 
 distance of two worlds. They are seized on a sud- 
 den from our eyes, and from onr embraces ; and this 
 thought allays the delight that we take in their com- 
 pany, and diminishes the joy ; but in that world all 
 our friends are immortal, ive shall ever be with the 
 Lord, and ever with one another too, X Thess. iv. 17. 
 
 May I be permitted here to make a short reflection 
 on that mournful providence that has joined two 
 lovely relatives in* death, and given occasion for the 
 sad solemnities of this day ? The pious mother led 
 the way to heaven but a few days before the pious 
 daughter followed, each of them the parent of a 
 reputable family, and the descendants from a pro- 
 genitorf, whose name is in honour among the church- 
 es. As mutual affection joined their habitations 
 
 * The Lady Hartopp, daughter of Charles Fleetwood, Esq. 
 and wife lo John Hartopp, of Newington, Baronet, died Novem- 
 ber 9th, 1711. Mrs. Gould, their daughter and wife to JMr Could, 
 (now Sir Nathaniel Gould of Newington) died six days after, viz. 
 Nov. \bth, and left their households behind them oppressed with 
 double sorrow. 
 
 t Charles Fleetwood, of Norfolk, Esq. 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 223 
 
 in life, so the care of surviving friends" has faui them 
 to rest in their beds of earth together. We trust 
 they are also joined in the world of blessed spirits 
 on high, and they shall be joined again in the world 
 of glorified saints in the morning of the resurrection. 
 Death, their common enemy, has taken them both 
 captives together, has bound in his chains the mother 
 and the daughter: but they are prisoners of hope, 
 and together they shall obtain a glorious release. 
 
 I would copy a line from that most beautiful elegy 
 of David, and apply it here with more justice than 
 the Psalmist could to Saul and Jonathan, 2 Sam. i. 
 23. Lovely and pleasant were tliey in their lives, and 
 in death they were not divided. Silent were they, 
 and retired from the world, and unknown except to 
 their intimate friends ; but God was a witness of their 
 hours of divine retirement. The graces of Christia- 
 nity, and the virtues of domestic life (which are the 
 proper ornaments of the sex) were the mark of their 
 utmost aim and ambition : nor did they seek the 
 flatteries of the court, or the city, nor affect the gaie- 
 ties of a degenerate age. Humble they were, and 
 averse from public shew and noise : nor will I disturb 
 their graves by making them the subject of public 
 praise. In the hearts of their families, their memory, 
 their image, and their example will live. O may the 
 brightest and best part of their image and example 
 live in the character and practice of all that are left 
 behind. ' 
 
 What a dreadful and overwhelming thought is it 
 to suppose, that any of that honoured and numerous 
 household .should be divided asunder at the last day ! 
 Give all diligence then, my worthy friends, to make 
 your calling and your election sure ; devote yourselves 
 
2-24 THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 
 
 to the God of your predecessors ; trust in the same 
 Saviour ; tread in the same paths of holiness ; and 
 pursue the same glory. What a joy will it be to 
 that pious lady that is gone before, to find, that 
 those that were dear to her ns her own soul have 
 overcome sin and death, and in a blessed succession 
 arrive at the same heaven ! Let me entreat you to 
 give her this satisfaction, and not disappoint her 
 prayers and her hopes. Let your venerable sur- 
 viving parent (who is now confined at home under 
 sorrows and sharp pains) obtain this pleasure. Let 
 tkat dear partner of her joys and cares behold the 
 power of religion appearing and reigning in all your 
 hearts before his eyes are closed in death. Give 
 both of them this consolation at the appearance of 
 Christ, that they may say, " Lord, here we are, and 
 the children that thou hast given us. Here we are 
 with our ancestors, and our offspring, and our kin- 
 dred around us, adoring thy rich grace together, 
 and entering together into the state of perfect glory 
 which thou hast prepared." 
 
 It remains only that I should propose some 
 reflections on the last head of discourse for the 
 meditation of this whole assembly, and especially 
 for those that are engaged in the spiritual warfare, 
 and proceed to daily conquests. 
 
 Shall death, with all its attendants, be destroyed 
 for ever? And are these the blessings that shall 
 succeed ? Then enter into this joy beforehand by 
 a lively faith, and begin the song of triumph — O 
 death where is thy sting ? O grave inhere is thy 
 victory ? 1 Cor. xv. 55. Rejoice not over me, O 
 mine enemy, when I fall, I shall arise, Mic. vii. ft. 
 
THE CONQUEST OVER DEATH. 225 
 
 After you have fought many battles with satan, 
 subdued many sins, and encountered a thousand 
 temptations with success, perhaps you find new 
 adversaries still arising- ; look forward tlien to this 
 joyful hour, and say, " But I shall one day be for 
 ever free from all these toils and labours of war, for 
 all my enemies shall be overcome, since death the 
 last of them shall be subdued." 
 
 When you feel the infirmities of this mortal body 
 hang heavy upon your spirits, and damp your de- 
 votion, read the words of this promise, and rejoice ; 
 M these pains, and these languors of nature, shall 
 one day vanish and be no more ; for death, with all 
 its train, must be destroyed." 
 
 When some of your dearest friejids are seized by 
 this tyrant, and led away to the grave in his chains, 
 while you are wounded to the very soul, remember 
 that Christ your captain, and your saviour, shall 
 revenge this quarrel upon your last enemy ; for he 
 has appointed the hour of his destruction. Mount 
 not, therefore, for the dead, as those that sorrow 
 without hope, for those that sleep in Jesus, the Lord 
 shall bring with him when he comes ; I Thess. iv. 
 13. And he shall join you together in a blessed 
 and durable friendship, where it shall be eternally 
 impossible for enemies to break in upon your peace ; 
 for death, the last of them, shall be then destroyed. 
 And the Lord has left us this comfort in the end 
 of his sacred writing, surely I come quickly. Let 
 each of us with a cheerful heart reply, even so, come, 
 Lord Jesus. Amen. 
 
 (10.) 2 v 
 
THE 
 
 HAPPINESS 
 
 OF 
 
 SEPARATE SPIRITS, $?c. 
 
 ATTEMPTED IN 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 Sir JOHN HARTOPP, Bart. 
 DECEASED. * 
 
 THE INTRODUCTION. 
 
 YfT is a solemn and mournful occasion that has 
 « brought me to this place this day*. Divine 
 providence, and the will of surviving relatives, call 
 me to pay the last sacred and pious respect to the 
 memory of the deceased ; a worthy Gentleman, and 
 an excellent Christian, who has lately left our world 
 in a good old age. 
 
 It is something more than ten years since I was 
 engaged in the same service to the memory of his 
 honoured and pious lady, when by a double and 
 
 * Sir John Hartopp died April 1st, 1722, in the 85th year of 
 his age ; and the substance of this discourse was delivered briefly 
 at Stoke-Newington, April 15th, following. 
 
228 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 painful stroke the mother and the daughter were 
 joined in death ; when the two kindred families 
 were smitten in the tenderest part, and each of 
 them sustained a loss that could never be repaired*. 
 This town was the place which they had all ho- 
 noured with their habitation, and spent the largest 
 part of their lives amongst you ; but they are now 
 become inhabitants of the heavenly city, they dwell 
 in the world of blessed spirits, and I would lead 
 your devoutest thoughts to follow them thither. 
 C^me then, let our meditations take their rise from 
 those words of the great apostle, in 
 
 * See a particular account, pa^t 222, of the foregoing dis- 
 course in the margin. 
 
[ 229 ] 
 
 Heb. XII. 23. 
 
 — - -The Spirits of just Men made perjcct. 
 
 T>T is a much sweeter employment to trace the 
 AA souls of our departed friends into those upper 
 and blighter regions, than to be ever dwelling upon 
 the dark prospect, and fixing our eyes upon death, 
 and dust, and the grave : and that not only because 
 it gives us a comfortable view of the persons whom 
 we mourn, and thus it relieves our most weighty 
 and smarting sorrows ; but because it leads us to 
 consider our own best interest, and our highest 
 hopes, and puts us in mind of the communion that we 
 have with those blessed spirits in heaven, while we 
 belong to the church on earth. We are come, says 
 the apostle, ver. 22. We, in the gospel-state, are 
 come to mount Zion, ' to the heavenly Jerusalem, to 
 the innumerable company of angels, and to the spirits 
 of just men made perfect. 
 
 What sort. of communion it is that good men here 
 below maintain with those exalted spirits, is not my 
 present business to describe ; therefore I apply my- 
 self immediately to the words of my text, and con- 
 tine myself to them only. 
 
 And here I shall consider these four things : 
 
 ••5' 
 
 I. Who are particularly designed by the spirits of 
 the just ; and here I shall make it evident the 
 apostle intends not merely the spirits of good men, 
 but such good spirits as are dismissed from their 
 mortal bodies. 
 
230 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 II. We shall enquire, wherein consists the per 
 fection to which they have arrived, and what are 
 the excellencies in which they are made perfect 
 
 III. What sort of perfection it is they enjoy, and 
 what are the peculiar characters of it 
 
 IV. How they arrive at this perfect state, and 
 what influence the dismission from their bodies has 
 towards their attainment of it. 
 
 And then conclude with a few remarks for our 
 instruction and practice, suitable to the present 
 providence. 
 
 SECT. I. 
 
 Of the Spirits of the Just. 
 
 Our first enquiry is, " Whom are we to under- 
 stand by the spirits of the just here spoken of?" 
 
 The name of just or righteous men, taken in a 
 large and general sense, as it is often used in scrip- 
 ture, signifies all those ivho fear and love God, and 
 are accepted of him. In the New Testament they 
 are frequently called saints, believers, or children of 
 God : but in both parts of the Bible they are often 
 described by the name of just, or righteous, and they 
 are properly called so upon these three accounts. 
 
 I. Their persons are made righteous in the sight 
 of God having their sins forgiven, and their souls 
 justified through the death and righteousness of 
 Jesus Christ. So the word is used, Rom. v. 18. 
 By the obedience of one shall many be made righ- 
 teous. They have seen themselves all guilty and 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 231 
 
 exposed to the wrath of God, they have fled to lay 
 hold on the hope set before them, they have mourned 
 before God and been weary of sin, they have receiv- 
 ed the great atonement, they have committed their 
 case by a living faith to Jesus the righteous, the 
 surety and the saviour of perishing sinners ; and 
 that God hath received them into his favour, and 
 has imputed righteousness to them, even that God 
 ivho is just, and the justifier of them who believe in 
 Jesus Now this sense cannot reasonably be ex- 
 cluded from the character of a saint, though the 
 word righteous is more frequently taken in the fol- 
 lowing senses. 
 
 II. Their natures are made righteous, and sanc- 
 tified by the spirit of grace. They have a principle 
 of grace and holiness wrought in them ; so the word 
 signifies, Eph. iv. 24. The new man tvhich is created 
 after the image of God in righteousness and true ho- 
 liness. They were once sinners, disobedient, and 
 unholy, as they were bora into this world ; but they 
 are born again, and made new creatures by the 
 grace of the Holy Spirit. Their understandings are 
 enlightened to see the dreadful evil of sin, and the 
 divine beauty of holiness. Their wills are turned 
 from folly and vanity, from the love of earth, and 
 sense, and sin, to a holy contempt of the world, and 
 a hatred of all that is sinful ; from a neglect of re- 
 ligion to desires after God, and a delight in him ; 
 from a mere formal profession of the gospel, to the 
 faith and love of Christ, and a zealous pursuit of 
 holiness ; and they place their highest hopes and 
 their joys in things divine, spiritual, and eternal. 
 
 III. Their lives are righteous and conformable to 
 the will of Gotl revealed in his word. So the term 
 
232 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 righteous signifies, 1 John iii. 7. He that does 
 righteousness is righteous. The just man makes it 
 the business of his life to do works of righteousness, 
 taken in the largest sense ; to worship God, to seek 
 his glory, to obey his will, which is the rule of 
 righteousness ; to do him all the service on earth 
 that his station and circumstances admit of, and to 
 deal faithfully and justly among men, and to do 
 them all the good that lies in his power. 
 
 These are the just men whose spirits are spoken 
 of in my text. 
 
 *Now it is evident the apostle here means their 
 spirits which are in heaven, and departed from 
 these mortal bodies, because the train of blessed 
 companions, which he describes just before, leads 
 our thoughts to the invisible world. ■ 
 
 If we can suppose any part of these two verses 
 to refer to earth, and our present state, it must be 
 when he says, ye are come to mount Zion, to the 
 city of the living God, that is, the visible church of 
 Christ under the gospel dispensation. But then he 
 adds, you are come also to the heavenly Jerusalem, 
 which may probably include all the inhabitants of 
 heaven in general ; and descending to particulars, 
 he adds, to an innumerable company of angels, and 
 to the general assembly and church of the first-born, 
 who are written in heaven : whereby we must un- 
 derstand the whole invisible church of God among 
 men, if we do not confine it to those who are already 
 of the church triumphant : and next he leads us to 
 God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men 
 made perfect ; that is, spirits released from flesh and 
 blood, who have stood before God their judge, and 
 are determined to a state of perfection in heaven. 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 233 
 
 Besides, when St. Paul speaks of fijllow-Chvis- 
 tians here on earth, it is not his manner to call them 
 spirits, but men, or brethren, or saints, &c. therefore 
 by the naked and single term spirits, he distin- 
 guishes these persons from those who dwell in 
 mortal bodies, and raises our thoughts to the world 
 of blessed souls, released from the wretched ties 
 and bondage of flesh and blood, the spirits of good 
 men departed from this earth, and dwelling in the 
 better regions of heaven. 
 
 I would here take notice also, that the apostle 
 perhaps in this place chuses rather to call them just 
 or righteous men, which is a term used frequently 
 both in the Old and New Testament, that he might 
 include the patriarchs and the Jewish saints as well 
 as. the souls of departed Christians. Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob, Noah, Daniel, and David, Job, 
 Moses, and Elijah, dwell in that happy world, with 
 a thousand other spirits of renown in the antient 
 church, as well as the spirits of those that have 
 seen the Messiah, and believed in Jesus of Naza- 
 reth. What a noble and wondrous assembly ! 
 What an amazing and blissful society of human 
 souls, gathered from various nations, and from all 
 ages, and joined together in the heavenly Jerusalem, 
 the family of God above f 
 
 I shall proceed now to the second thing I pro- 
 Dosed, 
 
 SECT. IL 
 
 Of their Perfection in Knowledge, Holiness, ana joy. 
 
 The second enquiry is this, " Wherein consists 
 the perfection at which these spirits are arriyedU* 
 (10.) 2 o 
 
234 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 The word perfect cannot be taken here in its most 
 extensive, absolute and sublime sense, for in that 
 sense it can belong only to God ; he is and must 
 be the sum and centre of all perfection for ever ; 
 all excellency and all blessedness in a supreme de- 
 gree meet in him ; none beside him can pretend to 
 absolute perfection. 
 
 Nor is the word used here in its most sublime 
 sense in which it may be applied to a creature ; for 
 when the spirits of just men are made never so per- 
 fect^ the blessed soul of our Lord Jesus Christ will 
 be more perfect then they ; for in all things he must 
 have the pre-eminence, Col. i. 18. 
 
 Perfection therefore is taken in a comparative 
 ** sense here, as in many other places in scripture. 
 So St. Paul calls those Christians on earth perfect^ 
 who are advanced in knowledge and Christianity 
 far above their fellows ; as in 1 Cor. ii. 6. 1 speak 
 ivisdom among them that are perfect. Phil. ii. 15. 
 Let as many as are perfect be Urns minded. So that 
 blessed souls above are only perfect in a comparative 
 sense. They are advanced in every excellency of 
 nature, and every divine privilege, far above all their 
 fellow-saints here on earth. 
 
 I desire it also to be observed here, that 
 
 Ths word perfection doth not generally imply 
 another sort of character than what a man- possessed 
 before ; but a far more exalted degree of the same 
 character which he was before possessed of. 
 
 The perfection then of the spirits of the just in 
 heaven, is a glorious and transcendant degree of 
 those spiritual and heavenly qualifications and bless- 
 ings which tliey enjoy here oil earth in a lower 
 measure \ implying also, a freedom from all the 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 235 
 
 defects and disorders to which they were here ex- 
 posed, and which are inconsistent with their present 
 felicity 
 
 If I were to branch it into particulars, I would 
 name but these three, namely, (1.) A great increase 
 of knowledge, without the mixture of error. (2.) A 
 glorious degree of holiness, without the mixture of 
 the least sin. (3.) Constant peace and joy, without 
 the mixture of any sorrow or uneasiness. 
 
 Let us consider them distinctly. 
 
 1. A great increase of knowledge without the 
 mixture of error; and in this sense it is perfect 
 knowledge. i 
 
 Part of the happiness of spirits consists in con- 
 templation ; and the more excellent the object is 
 which we contemplate, and the more perfect our 
 acquaintance with it, the greater is our happiness. 
 Therefore the knowledge of God, the infinite and 
 eternal spirit, is the true felicity of all the ranks of 
 created spirits in the upper and lower worlds. What 
 unknown and unrivalled beauties are contained in 
 the attributes of his nature ! What a heavenly 
 pleasure is it to lose ourselves amongst the bound- 
 less perfections of his self-sufficiency and eternal 
 existence, his wisdom, his power, his justice, his 
 holiness, his goodness, and his truth ! and what a 
 divine harmony amongst them all ! 
 
 How does the philosopher entertain and feast 
 himself with daily discoveries of new wonders 
 amongst the works of God, and beholds the print 
 of the hands of his Creator on them all ! What 
 superior glories are seen by the enquiring Christian 
 amongst the greater wonders of his grace ! and he 
 receives the discovery of them with superior delight, 
 
230 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 for his eternal life is in them, John xvii. 3. This is 
 life eternal, that they may know thee the only true 
 God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. To 
 know the Father and the Son according to the 
 revelation which they have given of themselves in 
 the gospel, is not only the way to obtain life eternal, 
 and consequently the business of the saints below ; 
 but the knowledge of this Son and this Father in 
 their natural glories, in their personal characters, in 
 their sublime and mysterious relations to each other, 
 and in their most amazing contrivances and trans- 
 actions for the recovery of lost sinners, may be 
 matter of the most pleasing enquiry, and delicious 
 contemplation, to angels themselves, 1 Pet. i. 12. 
 These are the things which the angels desire to look 
 into. And the spirits of the just made perfect are era- 
 ployed in the same delightful work ; for which they 
 have much more concern, and a dearer interest in it. 
 
 We know something of God by the light of nature. 
 The reason that is within each of us, shines like a 
 slender candle in a private room, and gives us some 
 twinkling and uncertain notions of our Creator. 
 The notices that we obtain by the light of grace, or 
 the gospel here on earth, are far brighter and surer, 
 like the moon at midnight shining upon a dark 
 world, or like the rise of the morning star, and the 
 dawning of the day. But the knowledge which 
 departed spirits obtain of their Creator and their 
 Redeemer in the light of glory, is far superior to 
 that of nature and grace, as the lustre of the 
 meridian-snn exceeds the pale moon-bean ■«. 'or the 
 glimmering twilight of the morning. 
 
 This is what the apostle describes, 1 Cor. xiii. 
 9—12. For tec know but in part, and we prophesy 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 237 
 
 in part. But when that whieh is perfect is come, 
 then that which is in part shall be done away. When 
 I teas a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a 
 child, I thought as a child ; but when 1 became a 
 man, I put away childish things. For noiv we see 
 through a glass darkly ; but then face to face : now 
 I know in part ; but then shall I knoiv even as also 
 1 am known* The imperfection of our knowledge 
 in this world consists much in this, that we are liable 
 to perpetual mistakes. A thousand errors stand 
 thick around us in our enquiries after truth, and we 
 stumble upon error often in our wisest pursuits of 
 knowledge ; for we see but through a glass darkly, 
 but then we shall know even as ive are known, and 
 see face to face ; that is, we shall have a more im- 
 mediate and intuitive view of God and Christ, and 
 of the Holy Spirit, without such mediums as are 
 now necessary for our instruction ; we shall know 
 them in a manner something akin to the way where- 
 by God knows us, though not in the same degree 
 of perfection ; for that is impossible : yet in these 
 respects our knowledge shall bear some resemblance 
 to the knowledge of God himself, namely, that it 
 shall be not merely a rational knowledge, by infer- 
 ences drawn from his works, not merely a know- 
 ledge by narration, or report and testimony, such 
 as we now enjoy by his word ; but it shall be such 
 a sort of knowledge as we have of a man when we 
 see his face, and it shall also be a certain and 
 unwavering knowledge, without remaining doubts, 
 without error, or mistake. O happy spirits that are 
 thus divinely employed, and are entertaining them- 
 selves and their fellow-spirits with those noble truths 
 and transporting wonders of nature and grace, of 
 
238 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 God and Christ, and things heavenly, which are all 
 mystery, entanglement and confusion to our thoughts 
 in the present state ! 
 
 II. This perfection consists in a glorious degree 
 of holiness, without the mixture of the least sin ; and 
 in this sense it is perfect holiness. 
 
 All holiness is contained and summed up in the 
 love and delightful service of God and our fellow- 
 creatures. 
 
 When we attempt to love God here on earth, and 
 by the alluring discoveries of grace try to raise our 
 affections to things of heaven, what sinful damp 
 and coldness hang heavy upon us ? What counter- 
 allurements do we find towards sin and the creature, 
 by the mischievous influence of the flesh and this 
 world ? What an estrangedness from God do the 
 best of Christians complain of? And when they 
 sret nearest to their Saviour in the exercises of holv 
 love, they find perpetual reason to mourn over their 
 distance, and they cry out often with pain at their 
 hearts ; " What a cursed enemy abides still in me, 
 and divides me from the dearest object of my desire 
 and joy !" But the spirits of the just made perfect, 
 have the nearest views of God their Father, and 
 their Saviour ; and as they see them face to face, 
 so (may 1 venture to express it) they love them with 
 a union of heart to heart ; for he that is joined to 
 the Lord in the nearest union in heaven, may well 
 be called one Spirit with him, since the apostle says 
 the same thing of the saints on earth, 1 Cor. vi. 17. 
 
 As our love of God is imperfect here, so is all our 
 devotion and worship. 
 
 While we are in this world, sin mingles with all 
 our religious duties : we come before Gcd with our 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 239 
 
 prayers and our songs, but our thoughts wander 
 from him in the midst of worship, and we are gone 
 on a sudden to the ends of the earth. We go up to 
 his temple, and we try to serve him there an hour or 
 two ; then we return to the world, and we almost 
 forget the delights of the sanctuary, and the God we 
 have seen there. But the spirits of the just made 
 perfect are before the throne of God, and serve him 
 day and night iu his temple, 'Rev. vii. 15. And 
 though they may not be literally engaged in one 
 everlasting act of worship, yet they are ever busy in 
 some glorious services for him. If they should be 
 sent on any message to other worlds, yet they never 
 wander from the sight of their God ; for if the 
 guardian angels of children always fyehold the face 
 of our heavenly Father, Matt, xviii. 10. even when 
 they are employed on their divine errands to our 
 world ; much more may we suppose the spirits of 
 just men made perfect never lose the blissful vision, 
 whatsoever their employments shall or can be. 
 
 And as our acts of worship on earth, and con- 
 verse with God, are very imperfect, so is our zeal 
 and activity for God extremely defective; but it 
 shall be ever bright and burning in the upper world. 
 
 When we would exert our zeal for God on earth, 
 how many corrupt affections mix with that zeal and 
 spoil it ! Dead flies, that cause that noble ointment 
 to send forth a stinking savour ! How much of self, 
 and pride, and vain ambition too often mingles with 
 our desire to serve Christ and his gospel ! Some 
 have preached Christ out of vain-glory or envy ; 
 and a mixture of those vices may taint our* pious 
 ministrations. When we seem to drive furiously 
 like Jehu to the destruction of the priests and the 
 
240 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 worship of Baal, too often the wild-fire of our lusts 
 and passions, our envy and wrath and secret re- 
 venge join together to animate our chariot-wheels. 
 When we are ready to say with him, Come and see 
 my zeal for the Lord, perharps God espies in our 
 hearts too much of the same carnal mixture ; for 
 Jehu exalted the true God, that he might establish 
 himself a king, 2 Kings x. 16. But the spirits of 
 the just are perfect in zeal, and pure from all mix- 
 tures. Their very natures are like the angels, they 
 are so many flames of sacred and unpolluted fire, 
 the ministers of God that do his pleasure, and then 
 hide their faces behind their wings ; when they have 
 done all for God, they fall down and confess they 
 are nothing. 
 
 Temptation and sin have no place in those happy 
 regions. These are the evils that belong to earth 
 and hell ; but within the gates of heaven nothing 
 must enter llial tempteth, nothing that defileth. Rev. 
 xxi. 37. It is the mixture of sinful thoughts and 
 idle words, sinful actions and irregular affections, 
 that makes our state of holiness so imperfect here 
 below. We groan within ourselves, being burdened ; 
 we would be rid of these criminal weaknesses; these 
 guilty attendants of our lives : but the spirits above 
 are under a sweet necessity of being for ever holy ; 
 their natures have put on perfection ; the image of 
 God is so far completed in them, that nothing con- 
 trary to the divine nature remains in all their frame ; 
 for they see God in all the fairest beauties of his 
 holiness, and they adore and love. They behold 
 him without a veil, and are changed into the same 
 image from glory to glory, 2 Cor. iii. 18. If these 
 words are applicable to the state of grace, much 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 241 
 
 more to that of glory. They see Christ as he is, 
 and they are made completely I the him, 1 John iii. 2. 
 which is true concerning the state of separate spi- 
 rits, as well as the hour of resurrection. 
 
 As their love to God is perfect, so is their love to 
 all their fellow-saints. 
 
 We try to love our fellow-creatures and fellow- 
 chnstiaus here on earth ; but we have so many cor- 
 rupt passions of our own, and 'so many infirmities 
 and imperfections belong to our neighbours also, 
 that, mu'ual love is very imperfect. >Love is the 
 fulfilling of the lata, Rom. xiii. 10. But we shall 
 never fulfil that law perfectly till we are joined to 
 the spirits of the just in glory, where there is no in- 
 habitant without the flame of sacred love, no single 
 spirit unlovely or unbeloved. 
 
 In those happy mansions there is no envy raised 
 by the "perfections or the honours of our neighbour 
 spirits; no detracting thought is known there, no 
 reproachful word is heard in that country ; and, 
 perhaps, no word of reproach is to be found in the 
 whole heavenly language. Malice, and slander, 
 and the very names of infamy, are unknown in those 
 regions ; and wrath and strife are eternal strangers. 
 No divided opinions, no party quarrels, no seeds of 
 discords are sown in heaven. Our little angry jars 
 and contentions have no place there, and the noise 
 of war and controversy ceases for ever. There are 
 no offences given, and none are taken in that world 
 of love. Neither injury, nor resentment, is ever 
 kuown or practised there, those bitter and fatal 
 springs of revenge and blood. Universal benevo- 
 lence runs through the whole kingdom ; each spirit 
 wishes well to his neighbour as to himself; and till 
 QH) 2 H 
 
242 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 we arrive -there, we shall never be made perfect ifi 
 love, nor shall we see the blessed characters of it des- 
 cribed in the scriptures, fully copied out in living 
 examples. 
 
 In that holy world dwells God himself, who is 
 original love ; there resides our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 who is love incarnate ; and from that sacred head 
 flows an eternal stream of love through every mem- 
 ber, and blesseth all the inhabitants of that land 
 with its divine refreshments. Holiness is* perfect 
 among the spirits of the just, because love is perfect 
 Ui ere. 
 
 Objection. But are there not several graces and 
 virtues that belong to the saints on earth that are 
 finished at death, and can have no room in heaven ? 
 How then can perfection of holiness in heaven con- 
 sist in an increase of the same graces we practised 
 on earth ? 
 
 Answer. Yes, there are several such virtues and 
 such graces, as faith and repentance and godly sor- 
 row, patience, and forbearance, love to enemies, and 
 forgiveness of injuries, &c. But all these arise 
 from the very imperfections of our present state, from 
 the sins or follies of ourselves or our fellow-creatures. 
 Faith arises from the want of sight; repentance 
 from the returns of guilt; godly sorrow from the 
 workings of sin in us ; patience owes its very 
 nature and exercise to the afflictions we sustain 
 from the hand of God ; and forbearance and for- 
 giveness respects the injuries that we receive from 
 our fellow-creatures. But in heaven, faith, so far as 
 it regards the absence of God and Christ, is lost in 
 sight and enjoyment, as the light of a glimmering 
 taper is lost in the blaze of sun-beams. Repentance 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 243 
 
 of old sins, so far as it is attended with any painful 
 or shameful passions, ceases forever in heaven ; and 
 there is no new guilt for us to repent of: there shall 
 be no evil working in us to give pain to the spirit ; 
 no affliction from God to demand a patient submis- 
 sion ; no injuries from men to be borne or forgiven. 
 
 But there is the same pious temper still continues 
 in the spirits of the just made perfect, which was 
 the spring of those graces on earth: and could the 
 objects or occasions of them return, every spirit 
 there would exercise the same grace, and that in a 
 more glorious and perfect manner, for their very 
 natures are all over holy. 
 
 III. The last thing I shall mention, wherein the 
 perfection of the saints above consists, is their con- 
 stant peace and exalted joy, without any mixture of 
 sorrow or uneasiness ; and this is joy and peace in 
 perfection. 
 
 If our knowledge, our love, and our holiness are 
 imperfect on earth our joys must be so. The mis- 
 takes and the follies to which we are liable here 
 below, the guilt, that pains the conscience, and the 
 sin that is restless and ever working within us, will 
 bring forth fruits of present sorrow, where they do not 
 produce the fruit of eternal death. A saint in this 
 world will groan under these burdens ; and it is 
 very natural for him to cry out, O wretched man / 
 who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 
 Rom. vii. 24 . 
 
 Thus there are many things that are within us, 
 and that belong to us in this world, that forbid the 
 perfection of our joys. Aud besides all these, we 
 are attached and tied down to many other- uneasi- 
 nesses, while we dwell on earth. 
 
244 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 This world is a fair theatre of the wisdom arid 
 power of God, but it is hung- round and replenished 
 with temptations to fallen man, proper for a state 
 of trial ; soft and flattering temptations that by the 
 senses are ever drawing away the sonl from God 
 and heaven, and breaking in upon its divine repose 
 and joy : and while we are surrounded with a thou- 
 sand dangers, we cannot be said to dwell in perfect 
 peace, The follies and the crimes of others afflict 
 the soul of % good man, and put him to pain, as the 
 righteous soul of Lot teas vexed in Sodom from day 
 to day with their unlawful deeds, 2 Pet. ii. 8. The 
 greater vexations, and little teasing accidents of 
 life that attend us, disturb the sacred rest of the 
 saint, and ruffle or wound his spirit. And the best 
 of men on this account are sometimes ready to cry 
 out with David, Psal. cxx. 5, 6. Wo is me that I 
 dwell in Meshech, and sojourn in the tents of Ke- 
 dar : my soul hath long dwelt with them that hate 
 jyeace. O that I had wings like a dove, for then I 
 ivoidd fly away, and be at rest, Psal lv. 6 
 
 And sometimes God himself is absent from the 
 soul that longs after him ; he hides his face, and 
 then who can behold it ? we are smitten with a 
 sense of sin, and the conscience is restless. We 
 wander from thing to thing in much confusion of 
 spirit; we go from providences to ordinances, from 
 one word in the Bible to another, from self-exami- 
 nation and inward guilt to the blood of Christ and 
 the mercy of the Father ; and it may be outward 
 sorrows fall on us at the same time, guilt and 
 judgment attend us at once: the deep of affliction 
 calls to the deep of sin at the noise of the floods of 
 divine anger, Psal. xlii. 7. We are kept in the 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 245 
 
 dark for a season, and we see not the light of hiss 
 countenance, nor know our own interest in his love. 
 We go forward as Job did, bnt he is not there, and 
 backward but ire cannot perceive him, fyc. All the 
 comfort that a good man hath at such a season, 
 is to appeal to God, that he hnoweth the way that 
 Ttahe; when he hath tried me, I humbly hope jT 
 shall come forth as gold, Job xxiii. 8, 9, 10. 
 
 But the spirits of the just made perfect, are in 
 peaceful and joyous circumstances ; they know 
 God, for they see his face ; they know that they 
 love him, for they feel and enjoy it as the warmest 
 and sweetest affection of their hearts : and they are 
 sure God loves them too ; for every moment they 
 tast.e his love, and live upon it in all the rich varieties 
 of its manifestation. 
 
 O ! what unknown an r endless satisfactions of 
 mind arise from a full assurance of the love of God ! 
 What tongue can express, or what heart can con- 
 ceive the sacred pleasure that fills every soul in 
 heaven, under the immediate impressions of divine 
 love ! When the poor, trembling, doubting believer, 
 that knew himself to be infinitely unworthy of the 
 favour of God, or of the meanest place in his house, 
 shall be acknowledged as a son in the midst of his 
 fathers court on high, and amongst millions of con- 
 gratulating angels ! 
 
 No cloud shall ever interpose, no melancholy 
 gloom, no shadow of darkness shall ever arise in 
 those regions ; for the countenance of God, like the 
 sun in its highest strength, shall shine and smile upon 
 them for ever. And through the length of all their 
 immortality, there shall not be the least interruption 
 
240 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 of (lie sweet intercourse of love, on God's side, or 
 on theirs. 
 
 In that world there is no sorrow, for there is no 
 sin ; the inhabitants of that city, of the heavenly 
 Jerusalem, shall never say I am sick; for the people 
 that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity, 
 Isa. xxxiii. 24. When the righteous are dismissed 
 from this flesh, they enter into peace, their bodies 
 rest in their beds of earth, and their spirits walk in 
 heaven, each one in his own uprightness,, Isa. lvii. 2. 
 
 And as there is no sin within them to render them 
 Hueasy, so there is no troublesome guest, no evil 
 attendant without them, that can give them fear or 
 pain ; no sinners to vex them, no tempter to deceive 
 them, no spirit of hell to devour or destroy : 1st 
 xxxv. 9, 10. " No lion shall be there, nor any 
 ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be 
 found there : but the redeemed shall walk there. 
 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and 
 come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon 
 their heads : they shall obtain joy and gladness, and 
 sorrow and sighing shall flee away." 
 
 God himself shall never be absent, and then they 
 cannot be unhappy. They behold his face in righ- 
 teousness, and they are satisfied when they awake with 
 his likeness, Psal. xvii. ult. When they leave this 
 world of dreams and shadows, and awake into that 
 bright world of spirits, they behold the face of God, 
 and are made like him, as well as when their bodies 
 shall awake out of the dust of death in the morning 
 of the resurrection, formed in the image of the blessed 
 Jesus. That glorious scripture in Rev. xxi. 3, 4. 
 (be the sense of it what it will) can never be fulfilled 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 247 
 
 in more glory on earth than belongs to the state of 
 heaven : " The tabernacle of God is with men, and 
 he will dwell with them, and they shall be his 
 people, and God himself shall be with them and be 
 their God. And God shall wipe away all tears 
 from their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, ' 
 neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any 
 more pain : for the former things are passed away." 
 
 The saints above see their blessed Lord and 
 Saviour in all his exalted glories, and they are with 
 him where he is, according to his own prayer and 
 his own promise, John xvii. 24. and xiv. 3. They 
 are absent from the body, and present with the Lord. 
 They have esteemed him on earth above all things, 
 and longed after the sight of his face, whom having 
 not seen they loved, 1 Pet. i. 8. but now they behold 
 him, the dear Redeemer that gave rtis life and blood 
 for them, they rejoice with joy much more unspeak- 
 able and full of superior glory. 
 
 Thus I have shewn wherein this perfection of 
 spirits in heaven consists. It is a high and glorious 
 degree of all those excellencies and privileges they 
 were blessed with on earth without any mixture of 
 the contrary evil. It is a perfection of knowiedge, 
 holiness and joy. 
 
 And canst thou hear of all this glory, O my soul, 
 and meditate of all this joy, and yet cleave to the 
 earth and dust still ? Hast thou not often mourned 
 ,over thy ignorance, and felt a sensible pain in the 
 narrowness, the darkness, and the confusion of thy 
 ideas, after the utmost stretch and labour of thought ? 
 How little dost thou know of the essence of God, 
 even thy God, and how little of the two united 
 natures of Jesus thy beloved Saviour ? How small 
 
248 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 and scanty is thy knowledge of thyself, and of all 
 thy fellow-spirits, while thon art here imprisoned in 
 a cottage of clay ? And art thou willing to abide 
 in this dark prison still, with all thy follies and mis- 
 takes about thee ? Does not the land of light above 
 invite thy longing eyes and awaken thy desires : 
 those bright regions where knowledge is made per- 
 fect, and where thy God and thy Redeemer are seen 
 without a veil ? 
 
 And is not the perfect holiness of heaven another 
 allurement to thee, O my soul ? Dost thou not 
 scretch thy wings for flight at the very mention of a 
 world without temptation and without sin ? How 
 often hast thou groaned here under the burden of 
 thy guilt, and the body of death ? How hard hast 
 thou wrestled with thy inbred iniquities ? An hourly 
 war, and a long toilsome conflict ? How hast tjiou 
 mourned in secret, and complained to thy God of 
 these restless inward enemies of thy peace ? And 
 art thou so backward still to enter into those peace- 
 ful regions where these enemies can never come, 
 and where battle and war are known no more, but 
 perfect and everlasting holiness adorns the inhabit- 
 ants, and crowns of victory and triumph. 
 
 O the shattered and imperfect devotion of the 
 best saints on earth ! O the feeble fluttering efforts 
 of praise ! What poor hallelujahs we send up to 
 heaven on notes of discord, and, as it were, on 
 broken strings ? Art thou not willing, O my soul, 
 to honour thy God and thy Saviour with sweeter 
 harmony ? and yet what a reluctance dost thou shew 
 to enter into that world of joy and praise, because 
 the dark shadow of death hangs over the passage ? 
 Come awake, arise, shake off thy fears ; and let the 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 249 
 
 sense and notice of what the spirits of the just above 
 enjoy, raise thy courage, and excite thee to meet 
 the first summons with sacred delight and rapture. 
 
 But I fear I have dwelt too long upon these three 
 last particulars, because they are matters of more 
 obvious notice, and more frequent discourse ; yet 
 they are so entertaining, that I knew not how to 
 leave them. But I would not spend all my time 
 on common topics, while I am paying honour to tho 
 memory of an uncommon Christian. 
 
 I proceed therefore to the next general head. 
 
 SECT. Ill 
 
 Of the various Kinds and Degrees*qf the Employ 
 ments and Pleasures of Heaven. 
 
 Having shewn that by the spirits of just men in 
 my text, we are to understand the souls of all the 
 pious and the good that have left the body ; and 
 having described their perfection as a state of com- 
 plete knowledge, holiness, arid joy ; the third thing 
 I am to consider, is, what sort of perfection this is, 
 or what are some of the special characters of it. 
 And here I beg your attention to some pleasing 
 speculations which are agreeable to the word of 
 God, and to the nature and reason of things, and 
 which have often given my thoughts a sacred en- 
 tertainment, 
 
 I. It is such a perfection as admits of great 
 variety of employments and pleasures, according to 
 the various turn and genius of each particular spirit. 
 
 (11.) 2 I 
 
StfO THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 For the word perfection does not necessarily imply 
 a state of universal and constant uniformity. 
 
 That the mind of every man here on earth has a 
 different turn and genius, and peculiar manner of 
 thought, is evident to every wise observer. And 
 why should not every pious mind or spirit carry to 
 heaven with it so much of that turn and manner, as 
 is natural and innocent ? 
 
 I grant it is a possible thing, that many different 
 geniuses of men on earth may perhaps be accounted 
 for by the different constitution of the body, the 
 (j'arae of the brain, and the various texture of the 
 nerves, or may be ascribed to the coarser or finer 
 blood, and corporeal spirits ; as well as to different 
 forms of education and custom, &c. These may be 
 able to produce a wondrous variety in the tempers 
 and turns of inclination, even though all souls were 
 originally the same : but I dare not assert that there 
 is no difference betwixt the souls themselves at their 
 first creation and union with the body. There are 
 some considerations would lead one to believe, that 
 there are real diversities of genius among the spirits 
 themselves in their own nature. 
 
 God, the great creator, hath 'seemed to delight 
 himself in a rich variety of productions in all his 
 worlds which we are acquainted with. Let us 
 make a pause here, and stand still and survey the 
 overflowing riches of his wisdom, which are laid out 
 on this little spot of his vast dominions, this earthly 
 globe on which we tread ; and we may imagine the 
 same variety and riches overspreading all those 
 upper worlds which we call planets or stars. 
 
 What an amazing multiplicity of kinds of crea- 
 tures dwell on this earth ? If we search the animated 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 251 
 
 world and suney it, we shall find there are some 
 that fly, some that creep or slide, and some walk 
 on feet, or run : and every sort of animals clothed 
 with a proper covering ; some of tliem more gay 
 and magnificent in their attire than Solomon in all 
 his glory ; and each of them furnished with limbs, 
 powers, and properties fitted for their own support, 
 convenience, and safety. How various are the kinds 
 of birds and beasts that pass daily before our eyes ! 
 The fields and the woods, the forests and the deserts, 
 have their different inhabitants. The savage and the 
 domestic animals, how numerous they are ! and the 
 fowls both wild and tame ! What riches of dress 
 and drapery are provided to clothe them in all their 
 proper habits of nature ? What an infinite number 
 of painted insects fill the air and overspread the 
 ground ? What bright spangles adorn their little 
 bodies and their wings, when they appear in their 
 summer livery? What interwoven streaks of scarlet 
 beauty mingled with green and gold ? We behold 
 a strange profusion of divine wisdom yearly in our 
 own climate, in these little animated crumbs of clay, 
 as well as in the animals of larger size. And yet 
 there are multitudes of new strange creatures that 
 we read of in the narratives of foreign countries : 
 and what a vast profusion of entertainments for them 
 all ? How are the mountains and meadows adorned 
 with a surprising plenty of grass and herbs, fruits 
 and flowers almost infinite, for the use of man and 
 meaner animals ? ' 
 
 In the world of waters a thousand unknown 
 creatures swim and sport themselves, and leap with 
 excess of life even in the freezing seas : millions of 
 inhabitants range through that liquid wilderness, 
 
252 THE HAPPINESS OF " 
 
 willi swiftest motion, and in the wonders of their 
 frame and nature proclaim the skill of an almighty 
 Maker. Others of the watery kind are but half 
 alive, and are tossed from place to place by the 
 heaving ocean. Think of the leviathan, the eel, and 
 the oyster, and tell me if God has not shewn a rich 
 variety of contrivance in them ; and as various as 
 their nature is, so various is the means of their life ; 
 proper beds of lodging are provided for them, and 
 variety of food suited to uphold every nature. 
 
 Mankind is a world of itself, made up of the 
 nifogled or united natures of flesh and spirit. What 
 an infinite difference of faces and features among the 
 sons and daughters of men? And how much more 
 various are the turns of their appetites, tempers and 
 inclinations, their humours and passions ? And what 
 glorious employment hath divine wisdom ordained 
 for itself, in framing these millions of creatures with 
 understandings and wills of so inconceivable a 
 variety, so vast a difference of genius and inclina- 
 tion, to be the subjects of its providential govern- 
 ment ? And what, a surprising harmony is there 
 in the immense and incomprehensible scheme of 
 divine counsels, arising from the various stations 
 and businesses of men so infinitely diversified and 
 distinct from one another, and centering in one great 
 end, the divine glory ? An amazing contrivance, 
 and a design worthy of God. 
 
 Nor is the pure intellectual world alone destitute 
 of this delightful variety ? Is the nature of spirits 
 utterly incapable of this diversity aud beauty, with- 
 out the aids of flesh and blood ? Hath the wisdom 
 of God displayed no riches of contrivance there ? 
 And must there be such a dull uniformity no where 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 253 
 
 but in the country where spirits dwell, spirits, the 
 noblest part of God's creation and dominion ? Has 
 he poured out all the various glories of divine art 
 and workmanship in the inanimate and brutal or 
 animal world, and left the higher sort of creatures 
 all of one genius and one turn and mould, to re- 
 plenish all the intellectual regions ? Surely it is 
 hard to believe it. 
 
 In the world of angels we find various kinds 
 and orders, St. Paul tells us of thrones, and dominions, 
 and principalities, Col. i. 16. and St. Peter speaks 
 of angels and authorities and powers, 1 Pet. iii. 22. 
 and in other parts of the word of God we read the 
 names of an archangel, a seraph, and a cherub. 
 And no doubt, as their degrees and stations in the 
 heavenly world difTer from each other,* so their talents 
 and geniuses to sustain those different stations are 
 very various, and exactly suited to their charge and 
 business. And it is no improbable thought, that 
 the souls of men difTer from each other as much as 
 angels. 
 
 But if there were no difference at first betwixt 
 the turn and genius of different spirits in their original 
 formation, yet this we are sure of, that God designed 
 their habitation in flesh and blood, and their passage 
 through this world as the means to form and fit them 
 for various stations in the unknown world of spirits. 
 The souls of men having dwelt many years in par- 
 ticular bodies, have been influenced and habituated 
 to particular turns of thought, both according to the 
 various constitutions of those" bodies, and the more 
 various studies and businesses, and occurrences of 
 life. Surely then we may with reason suppose the 
 spirits departing from flesh to carry with them some 
 
254 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 bent and inclination towards various pleasures and 
 employments. 
 
 So we may reasonably imagine each sinful spirit 
 that leaves the body, to be more abundantly in- 
 flamed with those particular vices which it indulged 
 here, whether ambition, or pride, or covetousness, 
 or malice, or envy, or aversion to God and to all 
 goodness : and their various sorts of punishments 
 may arise from their own variety of lusts, giving 
 each of them a peculiar inward torment. 
 
 And why may not the spirits of the just made 
 perfect have the same variety of taste and pleasure 
 in that happy world above, according as they are 
 fitted for various kinds of sacred entertainments in 
 their state of preparation, and during their residence 
 in flesh and blood ? He that has wrought us for 
 the self-same thing is Goo 1 , 2 Cor. v. 5. 
 
 In the world of human spirits made perfect, David 
 and Moses dwell : both of them were trained up in 
 feeding the flocks of their fathers in the wilderness, 
 to feed and to rule the nation of Israel, the chosen 
 flock of God. And may we not suppose them also 
 
 ined up in the arts of holy government on earth, 
 to be the chiefs of some blessed army, some sacred 
 tribe in heaven ? They were directors of the forms 
 of worship in the church below under divine inspira- 
 tion : and might not that fit them to become leaders 
 of some celestial assembly, when a multitude of the 
 sons of God above come at stated seasons to present 
 themselves before the throne ? Both of them knew 
 how to celebrate the praise of their Creator in sacred 
 melody ; but David was the chief of mortals in this 
 harmonious work : and may we not imagine that he 
 is or shall be a master of heavenly music, before or 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 255 
 
 after the resurrection, and teach some of the choirs 
 above to tune their harps to the Lamb that was 
 slain ? 
 
 But to corne down to more modern times, is there 
 not a Boyle* and a Ray| in heaven ? Pious souls 
 who were trained up in sanctified philosophy ; and 
 surely they are fitted beyond their fellow-saints, to 
 contemplate the wisdom of God in the works of his 
 hands. Is there not a More J and a Howe||, that 
 have exercised their minds in an uncommon ac- 
 quaintance with the world of spirits ? And doubt- 
 less their thoughts are refined and improved in the 
 upper w r orld, and yet still engaged in the same 
 pursuit. There is also a Goodwin§, and an Owen**,, 
 who have laid out the vigour of their inquiries in the 
 glories and wonders of the persoa of Christ, his 
 bloody sacrifice, his dying love, and his exalted 
 station at the right hand of God. The first of these, 
 with a penetrating genius, traced out many a new 
 
 * The Honourable Robert Boyte, Esq. a most pious enquirer 
 into nature, and an improver of the experimental philosophy. 
 
 t Mr. John Ray, one of the ministers ejected for nonconformity 
 1062 ; he employed most of his studies afterwards in the cultiva- 
 tion of natural philosophy, in collections and remarks on the 
 yariety of plants, birds, beasts, fishes, &c. and wrote several 
 Treatises to improve natural philosophy in the service of religion. 
 
 X Dr. Henry More, a great searcher into the world of spirits, 
 and a pious divine of the church of England. 
 
 || Mr. John Howe, a name well known and highly honoured for 
 his sagacity of thought, bis exalted ideas, and converse with the 
 spiritual world, as appears in his writings. 
 
 § Dr. Thomas Goodwin : And, 
 
 # * Dr. John Owen, two famous divines of prime reputation 
 among the churches in the last century. 
 
256 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 and uncommon thought, and made rich discoveries 
 by digging- in the mines of scripture. The latter of 
 them humbly pursued and confirmed divine truth ; 
 and both of them were eminent in promoting faith 
 and piety, spiritual peace and joy, upon the principles 
 of grace and the gospel. Their labours in some of 
 these subjects, no doubt, have prepared them for 
 some correspondent peculiarities in the state of glory. 
 For though the doctrines of the person, the priest- 
 hood, and the grace of Christ, are themes which all 
 \We glorified souls converse with and rejoice in ; yet 
 spirits that have been trained up in them with pecu- 
 liar delight for forty or fifty years, and devoted most 
 of their time to these blessed contemplations, have 
 surely gained some advantage by it, some peculiar 
 fitness to receive the heavenly illuminations of these 
 mysteries above their fellow-spirits. 
 
 There is also the soul of an antient Eusebius*, 
 and the later spirits of an Usherf and a BurnetJ, 
 who have entertained themselves and the world 
 with the sacred histories of the church, and the 
 wonders of divine providence in its preservation and 
 recovery. There is a Tillotson||, that has cultivated 
 the subjects of holiness, peace and love, by his pen 
 
 * Eusebius, one of the fathers of the Christian church, who 
 wrote the history of the primitive ages of Christianity. 
 
 t Dr. John Usher, in the last century Archbishop of Ardmagh. 
 whose Chronological writings and his piety have rendered his 
 name honourable in the world. 
 
 I Dr. Gilbert Burnet, late Bishop of Salisbury, whose serious 
 religion and zeal to promote it among the clergy, made him almost 
 as famous as his history of the English Reformation., 
 
 || The name of Dr. John Tillotson, late Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury. 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 257 
 
 and his practice : there is a Baxter*, that has 
 wrought hard for an end of controversies, and 
 laboured with much zeal for the conversion of souls, 
 though with much more success in the last than in 
 the first. 
 
 Now though all the spirits in heaven enjoy the 
 general happiness of the love of God and Christ, 
 and the pleasurable review of providence ; yet may 
 we not suppose these spirits have some special 
 circumstances of sacred pleasure, suited to their 
 labours and studies in their state of trial on earth ? 
 For the church on earth is but a training school for 
 the church on high, and as it were a tiring room, in 
 which we are drest in proper habits for our appear- 
 ance and our places in that bright assembly. 
 
 But some will reprove me here, and say, what 
 must none but ministers, and authors, and learned 
 men have their distinguished rewards and glories 
 in the world of spirits ? May not artificers, and 
 traders, and pious women be fitted by their charac- 
 ter and conduct on earth for peculiar stations and 
 employments in heaven ? 
 
 Yes doubtless, their zeal for the honour of God, 
 their fervent love to Christ, their patience under 
 long trials, and the variety of their graces exercised 
 according to their stations on earth, may render 
 them peculiarly fitted for special rewards on high : 
 the wisdom of God will not be at a loss to find out 
 distinguishing pleasures to recompense them all ; 
 
 * Mr. Richard Baxter, a divine of great uote among the 
 Protestant Dissenters, need no farther Paraphrase to make thera 
 known. 
 
 (11.) 2 K 
 
ti58 THE HAPi [NESS OF 
 
 (though where the very station and business of this 
 life is such as makes a nearer approach to the 
 blessedness and business of heaven, it is much 
 easier for us to guess at the nature of that future 
 recompence. ^ 
 
 Let me ask my own soul then, " soul, what art 
 thou busy about ? What is thy chief employment 
 during thy present state of trial ? I hope thou art 
 not making provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts 
 thereof; for then thou art fit for no place *a heaven, 
 the doors will be for ever shut against thee. But 
 what special works of the spirit art thou engaged 
 in ? Dost thou redeem what hours thou art able, 
 from the necessary business of life, to do more im- 
 mediate service for God, to converse with things 
 heavenly ? Art thou seeking to gain a proper nieet- 
 ness for the sublimer employments of that upper 
 world, and a relish of the most refined pleasures r" 
 
 But 1 proceed to the second particular. . 
 
 II. The perfection of the spirits above, not only 
 admits of a rich variety of entertainments, accord- 
 ing to the various relish and inclination of the 
 blessed, but it is such a perfection as allows of 
 different degrees even in the same blessedness, ac- 
 cording to the different capacities of spirits, and 
 their different degrees of preparation. The word 
 perfection does not always require equality. 
 
 If all the souls in heaven were of one mould, and 
 make, and inclination, yet there may be different 
 sizes of capacity even in the same genius, and a 
 different degree of preparation for the same delights 
 and enjoyments : -therefore though all the spirits of 
 the just were uniform in their natures and pleasures, 
 and all perfect : yet one spirit may possess more 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 259 
 
 happiness and glory than another, because it is more 
 capacious of intellectual blessings, and better pre- 
 pared for them. So when vessels of various sizes 
 are thrown into the same ocean, there will be a great 
 difference in the quantity of the liquid which they 
 receive, though all might be full to the brim, and all 
 le of the richest metal. 
 
 Now there is much evidence of this truth in the 
 , Scripture. Our Saviour intimates such differ- 
 ed of rewards in several of his expressions, Matt. 
 28. He promises the apostles that they shall 
 sit on twelve thrones, judging' the twelve tribes of 
 Israeli And it is probable this may denote some- 
 thing of superior honour or dignity above the mean- 
 est of the saints. And even among the apostles 
 themselves he seems to allow of a ..difference ; for 
 though he would not promise James and John to sit 
 next to him, on his rigid hand and his left in his 
 kingdom, Matt. xx. 20, &c. yet he does not deny 
 that there are such distinct dignities, but says, it 
 shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of his 
 Father, ver. 23. 
 
 Again, our Lord says, Matt. x. 41, 42. He that 
 receives a prophet, and entertains him as a prophet, 
 shall have a prophet's reward ; and he that entertains 
 a righteous man, agreeable to his character, and 
 from a real esteem of his righteousness, shall have 
 a righteous man's reward : and even the meanest 
 sort of entertainment, a cup of cold water given to 
 a disciple, for the sake of his character, shall not go 
 without some reward. Here are three sorts or de- 
 grees of reward mentioned, extending to the life to 
 come, as well as to this life : now though neither oi 
 them can be merited by works, but all are entirely 
 
260 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 conferred by grace, yet as one observes here, " the 
 Lord hath fixed a proportion between the work and 
 the reward ; so that as one has different degrees of 
 goodness, the other shall have different degrees of 
 excellency." 
 
 Our Saviour assures us, that the torments of hell 
 shall admit of various degrees and distinctions ; 
 some will be more exquisite and terrible than 
 others ; it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and 
 Gomorrah in the day of judgment, who never sinned 
 against half so much light, than it shall be for 
 Y^horazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, where Christ 
 himself had preached his gospel, and confirmed it 
 with the most evident miracles, Matt. xi. 21 — 24. 
 And the servants who did not the will of their Lord, 
 shall he beaten with more or fewer stripes, according 
 to their different decrees of knowledge and advan- 
 tages of instruction, Luke xii. 47, 48. Now may 
 we not by a parallel reasoning, suppose there will 
 be various orders and degrees of reward in heaven, 
 as well as punishment in hell ; since there is scarce 
 a greater variety among the degrees of wickedness 
 among sinners on earth, than there is of holiness 
 among the saints ? 
 
 When the apostleis describingthe glories of thebody 
 at the great resurrection, he seems to represent the 
 differences of glory that shall be conferred on differ- 
 ent saints, by the difference of the great luminaries 
 of heaven, 1 Cor. xv. 41, 42. There is one glory of 
 the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory 
 of the stars; for one star differs from another in 
 glory ; so also is the resurrection of the dead. 
 
 The prophet Daniel led the way to this descrip- 
 tion, and the same spirit taught the apostle the same 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 261 
 
 language, Dan. xn. 2, 3. And many of them, that 
 sleep in. the dust of the earth, shall awake, some to 
 everlasting life, and some to shrnne and everlasting 
 contempt; and they that be ivise shall shine,. with 
 common glory, as the brightness of the firmament ; 
 and they that turn many to righteousness, shall have 
 a peculiar lustre as the stars, for ever and ever. And 
 if there be a difference in the visible glories of the 
 saints at the resurrection, if those who turn many to 
 righteousness shall sparkle, in that day, with brighter 
 beams than those who are only wise for their own 
 salvation ; the same reason leads us to believe a 
 difference of spiritual glory in the state of separate 
 spirits, when the recompense of their labour is begun. 
 
 So, 1 Cor. iii. 8. He that plantelh, and he that 
 watereth are one, and every man shall^ receiver his own 
 reward according to his own labour. If all be re- 
 warded alike, the apostle would not have said, each 
 man shall receive according to his own labour. Surely 
 since there is a distinction of labours, there will be a 
 distinction of rewards too. 
 
 And it is with this view that the same apostle 
 exhorts the Corinthians, 1 Epistle, xv. ult. There- 
 fore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, immoveable, 
 always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as 
 much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in 
 the Lord. Now that great labour and diligence, 
 that stedfastness in profession, and that zeal in 
 practice, to which the apostle exhorts them, might 
 seem to be in vain, if those who were far less labo- 
 rious, less zealous, and less stedfast, should obtain 
 an equal recompense. 
 
 It is upon the same principle that he encourages 
 them to holy patience under afflictive trials, 2 Cor. 
 
THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 k. 17. when lie says, onr light affliction whi 
 b*it for a moment, worketh for us afar more c.i\ 
 in<r and eternal weight of glory ; while ice look n I 
 to the things that arc seen, and temporal, but to the 
 things invisible and eternal. Now if the saint, who 
 was called to heaven almost as soon as he was made 
 a Christian, and went through no sufferings, sh i 
 possess the same weight of glory with the mai: 
 and confessors, under the long and tedious trail] i ) 
 cruelties which they sustained from. men, or painful 
 lis from the hand of God : I cannot see how their 
 V llictions could be said to work for them afar it, 
 e iceeding weight of glory. 
 
 He urges them also to great degrees of liberal it \ 
 
 m the same motive, 2 Cor. ix. 6. This I say, he 
 
 ■t soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly ; and 
 
 which soweth bountifully, shall also reap bounti- 
 
 7y. Which words may reasonably be construed 
 
 10 signify the blessings of the life to come, as well 
 
 as the blessings of the present life; for this apostle, 
 
 aking of the same duty of liberality, expresses 
 
 tiie same encouragement under the same metaphoi 
 
 Gal. vi. 0, 7, 8, 9. Let him that is taught in the 
 
 ?rord, communicate to him that teachcth in all good 
 
 things. Be not deceived, God is not mocked ; for 
 
 ivhatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap ; 
 
 Jo? he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap 
 
 corruption ; but he that soweth to the spirit, shall of 
 
 the spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be 
 
 weary in well doing ; for in due season we shall reap. 
 
 if we faint not. When God distributes the riches 
 
 of his glory amongst the saints in heaven, he pours 
 
 them out in a large and bountiful manner upon 
 
 those who have distributed the good things of this 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 263 
 
 life bountifully to the poor ; but he rewards the 
 narrow-souled Christian with a more sparing hand. 
 
 With the same design does the apostle encourage 
 Christians to great watchfulness against sin and 
 heresy, as well as ministers to a solicitous care of 
 their doctrine and preaching ; 1 Cor. hi. 12, 13, 14, 
 15. Jf any man build gold, silver, or precious, stones 
 upon the true foundation Jesus Christ, a-nd raise a 
 glorious superstructure of truth and holiness, he shall 
 receive a reward answerable to his skill and care in 
 building ; for his work shall stand, when it is tried 
 by the fire of the judgment day : but if he build 
 wood, hay, and stubble upon it, evil inferences, and 
 corrupt practices, or trifles, fruitless controversies, 
 idle speculations, and vain ceremonies, his works 
 shall be burnt, and he shall suffer loss, shall obtain 
 a far less recompense of his labour : yet, since he 
 has laid Christ for the foundation, and has taught 
 and practised the fundamental doctrines and duties 
 of Christianity, though mingled with much folly and 
 weakness, he himself shall be saved ; yet in so 
 hazardous a manner as a man that is saved by fire, 
 who loses all his goods, and just escapes with his 
 life. 
 
 When you hear St. Paul, or St. John, speaking 
 of the last judgment, they give hints of the same 
 distinction of rewards, 2 Cor. v. 10. For we must 
 all appear before the judgment seat of Christ ; that 
 every one may receive the things done in his body, 
 according to that he hath done, whether it be good 
 or bad. Eph.. vi. 8. Whatsoever good thing any 
 man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, 
 whether he be bond or free. Rev. xxii. 1 2. And 
 behold. I come quickly, and my reward is with me, 
 
2G4 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 U> give every man according as his icork shall be. 
 Though the highest and holiest saint in heaven can 
 claim nothing there by the way of merit, (for it is 
 our Lord Jesus Christ alone, who has purchased, all 
 those unknown blessings) yet he will distribute them 
 according to the different characters and degrees 
 of holiness which his saints possessed on earth ; and 
 those larger degrees of holiness were also the free 
 gift of God our Saviour. 
 
 I have often represented it to my own thoughts 
 tuuder this comparison. Here is a race appointed ; 
 here are a thousand different prizes, purchased by 
 some prince to be bestowed on the racers : and the 
 prince himself gives them food and wine, according 
 to what proportion he pleases, to strengthen and 
 animate them for the ru.cc. Each has a particular 
 stage appointed for him ; some of shorter, and'some 
 of longer distance. When every racer comes to his 
 own goal, he receives a prize * in most exact pro- 
 portion to his speed, diligence, and length of race ; 
 and the grace and the justice of the prince shine 
 gloriously in such a distribution. Not the foremost 
 of the racers can pretend to have merited the prize ; 
 for the prizes were all paid for by the prince him- 
 self; and it was he that appointed the race, and 
 gave them spirit and strength to run ; and yet there 
 is a most equitable proportion observed in the re- 
 ward, according to the labours of the race. Now 
 this similitude represents the matter so agreeable to 
 the apostle's way of speaking, when he compares 
 the Christian life to a race, 1 Cor. xi. 24, &c. Gal. 
 v. 7. Philip, iii. 14. 2 Tim. iv. 7. Heb. xii. 17. 
 that I think it may be called almost a Scriptural 
 description of the present subject. 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS, 265 
 
 The reason of man, and the light of nature, entirely 
 concur with Scripture in this point. The glory of 
 heaven is prepared for those who are prepared for 
 it in a state of grace. Rom. ix. 23. It is God who 
 nakes each of its meet for our own inheritance among 
 the saints in light, Col. i. 12. and then he bestows 
 on us that inheritance. As grace fits the soul for 
 glory, so a larger degree of grace advances and 
 widens the capacity of the soul, and prepares it to 
 receive a large degree of sorrow. The work of 
 grace is but the means, the reward of glory is the 
 end : now the wisdom of God always fits and 
 adjusts the means in a due proportion to answer 
 the end he designs ; and the same wisdom ever 
 makes the end answerable to the means he useth ; 
 and therefore he infuses more and higher glories into 
 vessels more enlarged and better prepared. 
 
 Some of the spirits in heaven may be trained up 
 by their stations and sacred services on earth for 
 more elevated employments and joys on high. 
 Can we imagine that the soul of David, the sweet 
 Psalmist, the prophet, and the king of Israel, is not 
 fitted by all his labours and trials, all his raptures of 
 faith, and love, and zeal, for some sublimer devotion 
 and nobler business than his own infant child, the 
 fruit of his adultery? And yet our divines have 
 generally placed this child in heaven, because David 
 ceased to mourn for him at his death, and said, that 
 he himself should go to him, 2 Sam. xii. 20, 23. De- 
 borah, the prophetess, judged Israel, she animated 
 their armies, and sung their victories : is not Deborah 
 engaged in some more illustrious employment among 
 the heavenly tribes, than good Dorcas may seem to 
 be capable of, whose highest character upon record 
 (12.) 2 l 
 
THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 is, that she was full of alms-deeds, and made coats 
 and garments for the poor ? Acts ix. 36, 39. And 
 yet perhaps Dorcas is prepared too for some greater 
 enjoyments, some sweeter relish or mercy, or some 
 special taste of the divine goodness above Rahab 
 the harlot ; Rahab, whose younger character was 
 lewd and infamous, and the best thing that we read 
 of her is, that her faith under the present terror of 
 the armies of Israel taught her once to cover and 
 conceal their spies ; and unless she made great ad- 
 vances afterward in grace, surely her place is not 
 very high in glory. 
 
 The worship of heaven, and the joy that attends 
 it, may be exceedingly different in degrees according 
 tq the different capacity of spirits ; and yet all may 
 be perfect and free from sinful defects. Does not 
 the sparrow praise the Lord its maker upon the 
 ridge of a cottage, chirping in its native perfection ? 
 And yet the lark advances in her flight and her song 
 as far above the sparrow, as the clouds are above 
 the house-top. 
 
 Surely superior joys and glories must belong to 
 superior powers and services. 
 
 Can we think that Abraham and Moses, who 
 were trained up in converse with God face to face, 
 as a man converses with his friend, and who followed 
 him through the wilderness and unknown countries 
 in a glorious exercise of faith, were not prepared for 
 a greater intimacy with God, and nearer views of 
 his glory in heaven, than Sampson and Jepthah 
 those rude heroes, who being appointed of God for 
 that service, spent their days in bloody work, in 
 hewing down the Philistines and the Ammonites ? 
 For we read little of their acquaintance with God 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 267 
 
 or converse with him, beside a petition now and 
 then, or a vow for victory and for slaughter ; and 
 we should hardly have charity enough to believe 
 they were saved, if St. Paul had not placed them 
 among the examples of faith in his eleventh chapter 
 to the Hebrews. Can we ever believe that the 
 thief upon the cross, who spent his life in plundering 
 and mischief, and made a single though sincere 
 profession of the name of Jesus just in his dying 
 hour, was prepared for the same high station and 
 enjoyment in paradise, so near the right hand of 
 Christ, as the great apostle Paul, whose prayers and 
 sermons, whose miracles of labour and suffering 
 filled up and finished a long life, and honoured his 
 Lord and Saviour more than all the twelve apostles 
 besides ? Can we imagine that the child that is 
 just born into this world under the friendly shadow 
 of the covenant of grace, and weeps and dies, and 
 is taken to heaven, is fit to be possessor of the same 
 glories, or raised to the same degree there, as the 
 studious, the laborious, and the zealous Christian, 
 that has lived abow.ourscore years on earth, and 
 spent the greatest part of his life in the studies of 
 religion, the exercises of piety, and the zealous and 
 painful services of God and his country ? Surely 
 if all these which I have named must have equal 
 knowledge and joy hi the future world, it is hard to 
 find how such an exact equity shaU be displayed in 
 distribution of final rewards, as the word of Go'd so 
 frequently describes. 
 
 Objection: But in the parable of the labourers 
 hired to work in the vi?ieyard, Matt/xx. 9 — 12. does 
 not every man receive his penny, they who were 
 catted at the first and third hour, and they who 
 
263 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 were called at the last ? Were not their rewards 
 all equal, those who had wrought but one hour, 
 and those who had borne the burden and heat of 
 the day ? 
 
 Answer. It is not the design of this parable to 
 represent the final reward of the saints at the day 
 of judgment, but to shew that the nation of the Jews, 
 who had been called to be the people of God above 
 a thousand years before, and had borne the burden 
 and heat of the day, i. e. the toil and bondage of 
 many ceremonies, should have no preference in the 
 esteem of God above the Gentiles who were called 
 at the last hour, or at the end of the Jewish dispen- 
 sation ; for it is said, v. 16. the last shall be first, 
 and the first last, i. e. The Gentiles, who waited 
 long ere the gospel was preached to them, shall be 
 the first in receiving it ; and the Jews, to whom it 
 was first offered, from an inward scorn and pride 
 shall reject it, or receive it but slowly : and Christ 
 adds this confirmation of it, for many be called but 
 few chosen, i. e. though multitudes of Jews were 
 called to believe in Christ, that few accepted the call. 
 
 There is another reason why this parable cannot 
 refer to the final rewards of heaven; because v. 11. 
 it is said, some of them murmured against the good 
 man of the house. Now there shall be no envy 
 against their fellow-saints, nor murmuring against 
 God in the heavenly state. But the Jews, and even 
 the Jewish converts to Christianity, were ready often 
 to murmur that the gospel should be preached to 
 the Gentile world, and that the heathens should be 
 brought into privileges equal with themselves. 
 
 Thus it sufficiently appears from the frequent 
 declarations of Scripture, as well as from the reason 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 260 
 
 and eqnity of things, that the rewards of the future 
 world shall be greatly distinguished according to 
 the different degrees of holiness and service for God, 
 even though every spirit there shall be perfect ; 
 nor is there any just and reasonable objection 
 against it. 
 
 It is certain then, that heaven has various degrees 
 of happiness in it, and shall my spirit rest contented 
 with the meanest place there, and the least and 
 lowest measure ? Hast thou no sacred ambition 
 in thee, O my soul, to sit down with Abraham, 
 Isaac and Jacob ? Or dost thou not aspire at least 
 to the middle ranks of glorified saints, though per- 
 haps thou may est despair of those most exalted, 
 stations which are prepared for the spirits of chief 
 renown, for Abraham, and Moses o£ antient time, 
 and for the martyrs and the apostles of the Lamb? 
 Wilt thou not stir up all the vigour of nature and 
 grace within thee, to do great service for thy God 
 and thy Saviour on earth, that thy reward in heaven 
 may not be small ? Wilt thou not run with zeal and 
 patience the race that is set before thee, looking to 
 the brightest cloud of witnesses, and reaching at 
 some of the richer prizes ? Remember that Jesus 
 thy judge is coming apace : he has rewards with 
 him of every size, and the lustre and weight of thy 
 crown shall most exactly correspond to thy sweat 
 and labour. 
 
 But I must not dwell always on this head : I 
 proceed therefore to the next. 
 
 III. The spirits of the just in heaven enjoy such 
 a perfection as is consistent with perpetual changes 
 of business and delights even in the same person or 
 
270 THE HAPPINESS OP 
 
 spirit. They may be always perfect, but in a rich 
 and endless variety. 
 
 It is only God who possesses all possible excel- 
 lencies and powers, and happinesses at once, and 
 therefore he alone is incapable of change : but 
 creatures must possess and enjoy their delights in a 
 succession, because they cannot possess and enjoy 
 all that they are capable of at once. And accord- 
 ing to this consideration the heavenly state is repre- 
 sented in Scripture in various forms both of business 
 and blessedness. 
 
 Sometimes it is described by seeing God, Matt. 
 v. 8. by beholding him face to face, 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 
 by being present with the Lord, 2 Cor. v. 8. by 
 being where Christ is, to behold his glory, John xvii. 
 24. Sometimes the saints above are said to serve 
 him as his servants, Rev. xxii. 3. Sometimes they 
 are represented as worshipping bejore the throne, 
 as being fed with the fruits of the tree of life, and 
 drinking the living fountains of ivater, Rev. vii. 15, 
 17. and xxii. 1, 2. and let it be noted, that twelve 
 maimer of fruits grew on this tree, and they were 
 new every mouth also. Sometimes they are held 
 forth to us as singing a new song to God, and to the 
 Lamb, Rev. xiv. 3. And at another time they are 
 described as wearing a crown of righteousness and 
 glory, of silting on the throne of Christ, of reigning 
 for ever and ever, and ruling the nations with a rod 
 of iron, 2 Tim. iv. 8. 1 Pet. v. 4. Rev. xxii. o. Rev. 
 ii. 26, 27. And in another place our happiness is 
 represented as sitting down v.ith Abraham, Isaac 
 and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, Matt. viii. 11. 
 Now surely this rich variety of language, whereby 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 271 
 
 the heavenly state is proposed to us in Scripture, 
 must intend a variety of entertainments and employ- 
 ments, that may in some measure answer the glory 
 of such expressions. 
 
 It is not only the powers of our understanding 
 that shail be regaled and feasted in those happy 
 regions with the blissful vision of God and Christ, 
 but our active powers shall doubtless have their 
 proper entertainments too. When angels are so 
 variously and delightfully employed in service for 
 God, in his several known and unknown worlds, 
 we cannot suppose the spirits of just men shall be 
 eternally confined to a sedentary state of unactive 
 contemplation. 
 
 Contemplation indeed is a noble pleasure, and 
 the joy of it rises high when it is fixed on the sub- 
 limest objects, and when the faculties "are all exalted 
 and refined. But surely such a sight of God and 
 our dear Redeemer as we shall enjoy above, will 
 awaken and animate all the active and sprightly 
 powers of the soul, and set all the springs of love 
 and zeal at work in the most illustrious instances of 
 unknown and glorious duty. 
 
 I confess heaven is described as a place of rest, 
 i. e. rest from sin and sorrow, rest from pain and 
 weariness, rest from all the toilsome labours and 
 conflicts that we endure in a state of trial ; but it 
 can never be such a rest as lays all our active 
 powers asleep, or renders them useless in such a 
 vital and active world. It would diminish the hap- 
 piness of the saints in glory to be unemployed there. 
 Those spirits who have tasted unknown delight and 
 satisfaction in many long seasons of devotion, and 
 in a thousand painful services for their blessed Lord 
 
272 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 on earth, can hardly bear the thoughts of paying no 
 active duties, doing* no work at all for him in heaven, 
 where business is all over delight, and labour is 
 all enjoyment. Surely his servants shall serve him 
 there, as well as worship him. They shall serve 
 him perhaps as priests in his temple, and as kings, 
 or viceroys, in his wide dominions ; for they are 
 made kings and priests unto God for ever, Rev. v. 10. 
 
 But let us dwell a little upon their active employ- 
 ments, and perhaps a close and attentive meditation 
 may lead us into an unexpected view and notice 
 V)f their sacred commissions and embassies, their 
 governments, and their holy conferences, as well as 
 their acts of worship and adoration. 
 
 That heaven is a place or state of worship, is 
 certain, and beyond all controversy ; for this is a 
 very frequent description of it in the word of God. 
 And as the great God has been pleased to appoint 
 different forms of worship to be practised by his 
 saints and his churches under the different economies 
 of his grace ; so it is possible he may appoint pecu- 
 liar forms of sacred magnificence to attend his own 
 worship in the state of glory. Bowing the knee, 
 and prostration of the body, are forms and postures 
 of humility practised by earthly worshippers. An- 
 gels cover their faces and their feet with their wings, 
 and cry, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts ! Isa. 
 vi. 2, 3. But what unknown and illustrious forms 
 shall be consecrated by the appointment and autho- 
 rity of Christ, for the unbodied or the bodied saints 
 in heaven to adorn their sacred offices, is above our 
 reach to describe or to imagine. 
 
 Let us consider now what parts of worship the 
 blessed are employed in 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 273 
 
 The various parts of divine worship that are 
 practised on earth, at least such as are included in 
 natural religion, shall doubtless be performed in 
 heaven too ; and what other unknown worship of 
 positive and celestial appointment shall belong to 
 the heavenly state, is as much above our present 
 conjecture, as the forms of it are. 
 
 Heaven is represented as full of praises. There 
 is the most glorious and perfect celebration of God 
 the Father and the Saviour in the upper world : 
 and the highest praise is offered to them with the 
 deepest humility. 
 
 The crowns of glory are cast down at their feet, 
 and all the powers and perfections of God, with all 
 his labours of creation, his cares of providence, and 
 the sweeter mysteries of his grace, shall furnish 
 noble matter for divine praise. 
 
 This work of praise is also exhibited in Scripture, 
 as attended with a song and heavenly melody. 
 What there is in the world of separate spirits to 
 answer the representations of harps and voices, we 
 know not. It is possible that spirits may be capable 
 of some sort of harmony in their language, without 
 a tongue, and without an ear, and there may be 
 some inimitable and transporting modulations of 
 divine praise without the material instruments of 
 string or wind. The soul itself by some philoso- 
 phers is said to be mere harmony; and surely then 
 it will not wait for it till the body be raised from the 
 dust, nor live so long destitute of all melodious joys, 
 or of that spiritual pleasure which shall supply the 
 place of melody, till our organs of sense shall be re- 
 stored to us again. 
 
 But is all heaven made up of praises ? Is there 
 (12.) 2 m 
 
274 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 no prayer there ? Let us consider a little : what is 
 prayer, but the desire of a created spirit in an hum- 
 ble manner made knowu to its Creator? Does not 
 every saint above desire to know God, to love and 
 serve him, to be employed for his honour, and to 
 enjoy the eternal continuance of his love and its 
 own felicity ? May not each happy spirit in heaven 
 exert these desires in a May of solemn address to the 
 divine Majesty ? May not the happy soul acknow- 
 ledge its dependence in this manner upon its Father 
 and its God ? Is there no place in the heart of a 
 glorified saint for such humble addresses as these ? 
 Does not every separate spirit there look and long 
 for the resurrection, when it i s certain that embodied 
 spirits on earth who have received the. Jirst Jruits of 
 grace and glory groan wi*hin themselves, ivaiting 
 for the redemption of the body ? Horn. viii. '2.3. And 
 may we not suppose each holy soul sending a sacred 
 and fervent wish after this glorious day, and lifting 
 up a desire to its God about it, though without the 
 uneasiness of a sigh or a groan ? May it not under 
 the influence of divine love breathe out the requests 
 of its heart, and the expressions of its zeal for the 
 glory and kingdom of Christ ? May not the church 
 above joia with the churches below in this language, 
 Father, thy kingdom come, thy ivill be done on earth 
 as it is in heaven ? Are not the soids of the martyrs 
 that were slain, represented to us as under the altar, 
 crying with a loud voice, How long, O Lord, holy 
 and true? Rev. vi. 9, 10. This looks like the voice 
 of prayer in heaven. 
 
 Perhaps you will suppose there is no such service 
 as hearing sermons, that there is no attendance upon 
 the word of God there. But are we sure there are 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. "27C> 
 
 no such entertainments ? Are there no lectures of 
 divine wisdom and grace given to the younger spirits 
 there, by spirits of a more exalted station ? Or may 
 not our Lord Jesus Christ himself be the everlasting- 
 teacher of his church ? May he not at solemn sea- 
 sons summon all heaven to hear him publish some 
 new and surprising discoveries, which have never 
 yet been made known to the ages of nature, or of 
 grace, and are reserved to entertain the attention, 
 and exalt the pleasure of spirits advanced to glory ? 
 Must we learn all by the mere contemplation of 
 Christ's person ? Does he never make use of speech 
 to the instruction and joy of saints above ? 
 
 Moses and Elijah came down once from heaven ■ 
 to make a visit to Christ on mount Tabor, and the 
 subject of their converse with him was his death and 
 departure from this world, .Luke ix. 31. Now since 
 our Lord is ascended to heaven, are these holy souls 
 cut off from this divine pleasure ? I's Jesus for ever 
 silent ? Does he converse with his glorified saints 
 no more ? And surely if he speak, the saints will 
 hear and attend. 
 
 Or it may be that our blessed Lord (even as ne 
 is man) has some noble and unknown way of com- 
 municating a long discourse, or a long train of ideas 
 and discoveries to millions of blessed spirits at once, 
 without the formalities of voice and language ; and 
 at some peculiar seasons he may thus instruct and 
 delight his saints in heaven. 
 
 Thus it appears there may be something among 
 the spirits of the just above that is analagous to 
 prayer and preaching as well as praise. 
 
 O how gustful are the pleasures of celestial wor- 
 ship ! what unknown varieties of performance, what 
 
276 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 sublime ministrations there are, and glorious services, 
 none can tell. And in all this variety, which may 
 be performed in sweet succession, there is no wan- 
 dering -thought, no cold affection, no divided heart, 
 no listless or indifferent worshipper. What we call 
 rapture and exstacy here on earth, is perhaps the 
 constant and uninterrupted pleasure of the church 
 on high in all their adorations. 
 
 But let the worship of the glorified spirits be 
 never so various, yet 1 cannot persuade myself that 
 mere direct acts or exercises of what we properly 
 *call worship, are their only and everlasting work. 
 
 The Scripture tells us, there are certain seasons 
 when the angels, those sons of God come to present 
 themselves before the Lord, Job i. G. and ii. 1. It is 
 evident then, that the intervals of these seasons are 
 spent in other employments : and when they present 
 themselves before God, it does not sufficiently ap- 
 pear that mere adoration and praise is their only 
 business at the throne. In the very place which I 
 have cited, it seems more natural to suppose that 
 these angelic spirits came thither rather to render 
 an account of their several employments, and the 
 success of their messages to other worlds. And why 
 may we not suppose such a blessed variety of em- 
 ployment among the spirits of men too ? 
 
 This supposition has some countenance in the 
 holy Scripture. The angel Or messenger who ap- 
 peared to St. John, and shewed him various visions, 
 by the order of Christ, forbids the apostle to worship 
 him : for 1 am thy fellow servant, said he, and of thy 
 brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the 
 sayings of this book, Rev. xxii. 8, 9. These words 
 naturally lead one to think, that though he appeared 
 
SEPAFwYTE SPIRITS. 277 
 
 as a messenger from Christ, and in the form of an 
 angel, yet he was really a departed saint, a brother, 
 a fellow-prophet, perhaps the soul of David, or 
 Isaiah, or Moses, who would count it an honour 
 even in their state of glory to be thus employed by 
 their exalted Lord ; and they also keep or observe 
 and wait for the accomplishment of the sayings of 
 that book of tie revelation, as well as the churches 
 of their brethren, the saints on earth. 
 
 1 freely allow immediate divine worship to take 
 up a good part of their everlasting day, their sab- 
 bath ; and therefore I suppose them to be ofteu 
 engaged, millions at once, in social worship : and 
 sometimes acting apart, and raised in sublime medi- 
 tation of God, or in a fixed vision of his blissful face, 
 with an act of secret adoration, while their intellec- 
 tual powers are almost lost in sweef amazement : 
 sometimes they are entertaining themselves and 
 their fellow-spirits with the graces and glories of 
 the man Christ Jesus, the Lamb that was slain in 
 the midst of the throne: but at other times they 
 may be making a report to him of their faithful 
 execution of some divine commission they received 
 from him, to be fulfilled either in heaven or in earth, 
 or in unknown and distant worlds. 
 
 There may be other seasons also when they are 
 not immediately addressing the throne, but are most 
 delightfully engaged in recounting to each other the 
 wondrous steps of providence, wisdom and mercy, 
 that seized them from the very borders of hell and 
 despair, and brought them through a thousand 
 dangers and difficulties to the possession of that 
 fair inheritance. When the great God shall unravel 
 the scheme of his own counsels, shall. unfold every 
 
278 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 part of his mysterious conduct, and set before 
 them the reason of every temptation they grappled 
 with, and of every sorrow they felt here on earth, 
 and wit!) what divine and successful influence they 
 all wrought together to train them up for heaven, 
 what matter of surprising delight and charming 
 conversation shall this furnish the saints with in 
 that blessed world? And now a«d then in the 
 midst of their sacred dialogues, by a sympathy of 
 soul, they shall shout together in sweet harmony, 
 and join their exalted songs to him that sits upon 
 the throne and to the Lamb. " Not unto us, O 
 Lord, not unto us, but to thy power, to thy wisdom, 
 and to thine abounding mercy, be renown and 
 honour to everlasting ages." 
 
 Nor is it improper or unpleasant to suppose that 
 among the rest of their celestial conferences, they 
 shall shew each other the fair and easy solution of 
 those difficulties and deep problems in divinity, 
 which had exercised and perplexed them here on 
 earth, and divided them into little angry parties. 
 They shall look back with holy shame on some of 
 their learned and senseless distinctions, and be 
 ready to wonder sometimes what trifles and im per- 
 tinencies had engaged them in dark and furious 
 disputes. Darkness and entanglement shall vanish 
 at once from many of those knotty points of con- 
 troversy, when they behold them in the light of 
 heaven : and the rest of them shall be matter of 
 delightful instruction for superior spirits to bestow 
 upon those of lower rank, or on the souls lately 
 arrived at the regions of light. 
 
 In short, there is nothing written in the books of 
 nature, the records of providence, or the sacred 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 279 
 
 volumes of grace, but may minister materials at 
 special seasons for the holy conference of the saints 
 on high. No history nor prophesy, no doctrine nor 
 duty, no command nor promise, nor threatening in 
 the Bible, but may recal the thoughts of the heavenly 
 inhabitants, and engage them in sweet conversation. 
 All things that relate to the affairs of past ages and 
 past worlds, as well as the present regions of light 
 and happiness where they dwell, may give them 
 new themes of dialogue and mutual intercourse. 
 
 And though we are very little acquainted, while 
 we are on earth, with any of the planetary worlds 
 besides that which we inhabit, yet who knows how 
 our acquaintance may be extended hereafter amongst 
 the inhabitants of the various and distant globes i 
 And what frequent and swift journeys we may take 
 thither, when we are disencumbered of this load of 
 flesh and blood, or when our bodies are raised again 
 active and swift as sun-beams ? Sometimes we may 
 entertain our holy curiosity there, and find millions 
 of new discoveries of divine power and divine con- 
 trivance in those unknown regions ; and bring back 
 from thence new lectures of divine wisdom, or 
 tidings of the affairs of those provinces to entertain 
 our fellow-spirits, and to give new honours to God 
 the creator and the sovereign. So a pious traveller 
 in our lower world visits Africa or both the Indies : 
 at his return he sits in a circle of attentive admirers, 
 and recounts to them the wondrous products of 
 those climates, and the customs and manners of 
 those distant countries ; he gratifies their curiosity 
 with some foreign varieties, and feasts their eyes 
 and their ears at once : then at the end of every 
 
280 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 story he breaks out into holy language and adores 
 the various riches and wisdom of God the Creator. 
 
 To proceed yet one step farther. Since there 
 are different degrees of glory, we may infer a 
 variety of honours as well as delights prepared for 
 the spirits of the just made perfect. 
 
 Some part of the happiness of heaven is described 
 in Scriptures by crowns and thrones, by royalty and 
 kingly honours : why may we not then suppose that 
 such souls, whose sublimer graces have prepared 
 them for such dignity and office may rule the nations, 
 even in a literal sense ? Why may not those spirits 
 that have past their trials in flesh and blood, and 
 come off conquerors, why may they not sometimes 
 be appointed visitors and superintendants over whole 
 provinces of intelligent beings in lower regions, who 
 are yet labouring in their state of probation ? or 
 perhaps they may be exalted to a presidency over 
 inferior ranks of happy spirits, may shine bright 
 amongst them as the morning star, and lead on 
 their holy armies to celestial work or worship. The 
 Scripture itself gives us a hint of such employments 
 in the angelic world, and such presidences over 
 some parts of our world, or of their own. Do we 
 not read of Gabriel and Michael, and their manage- 
 ment of the affairs of Persia, and Greece and Judea, 
 in the book of Daniel ? and it is an intimation of the 
 same hierarchy, when some superior angel led on 
 a multitude of the heavenly host to sing an hymn of 
 praise at Bethlehem, when the Son of God was 
 born there, Luke ii. 9, 13. Now if angels are thus 
 dignified, may not human spirits unbodied have the 
 same office ? Our Saviour when he rewards the 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 281 
 
 faithful servant that had gained ten pounds, bids 
 him take authority over ten cities ; and he that had 
 gained Jive, had Jive cities under his government, 
 Luke xix. 17, &c. So that this is not a mere 
 random thought, or a wild invention of fancy, but 
 patronised by the word of God. 
 
 Among the pleasures and engagements of the 
 upper world, there shall be always something new 
 and entertaining ; for the works and the dominions 
 of God are vastly beyond all our comprehensions. 
 And what a perpetual Change, what a glorious but 
 improving rotation of businesses and joys shall suc- 
 ceed one another through the ages of eternity, we 
 shall never know till we come amongst them. This 
 thought leads me to the last particular, namely, 
 
 IV. The perfection which the blessed spirits 
 enjoy, gives room for large additinrfs and continual 
 improvement. 
 
 Their knowledge and their joy may be called 
 perfect, because there is no mixture of error or 
 sorrow with it ; and because it is sufficient every 
 moment for the satisfaction of present desires, with- 
 out any uneasiness of mind. But it may be doubted 
 whether any creature ever was, or ever will be so 
 perfect, that is not capable of addition or growth in 
 any excellency or enjoyment. 
 
 The man Christ Jesus, in his present glorified 
 state, has not such a perfection as this. He waits 
 daily to see his Father's promises fulfilled to him ; 
 he waits till all things are put under him, and his 
 enemies shall be made' his actual Jootstool : but we 
 know that all things are not yet put under him, 
 Heb. ii. 8. that is, all the nations are not yet subject 
 to his spiritual kingdom, nor become obedient to his 
 
 (12.) 2 N 
 
282 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 gospel. As fast as his kingdom grows on earth, so 
 fast his honours and his joys arise ; and he waits 
 still for the complete union of all his members to 
 himself the sacred head : he waits for the morning 
 of the resurrection, when he shall be glorified in the 
 bright and general assembly of his saints, and ad- 
 mired in all them that believe, 2 Thess. i. 10. 
 
 O that illustrious and magnificent appearance ! 
 That shining hour of jubilee, when the bodies of 
 millions of saints shall awake out of the dust and 
 be released from their long dark prison ! When 
 % they shall encompass and adore Jesus their Saviour 
 and their God, and acknowledge their new life and 
 immortal state to be owing to his painful and shame- 
 ful death : when Noah, Abraham, and David, and 
 all his pious progenitors, shall bow and worship 
 Jesus their son and their Lord : when the holy 
 army of martyrs, springing from the dust with palms 
 of victory in their hands, shall ascribe their conquest 
 and their triumph to the Lamb that was slain : when 
 he shall present his whole church before the presence 
 of his own and his Father's glory, without spot, and 
 faultless, with exceeding joy ! Can we imagine that 
 Christ himself, even the man Jesus, in the midst of 
 all this magnificence and these honours, shall feel 
 no new satisfaction, and have no relish of all this 
 joy, above what he possessed while his church lay 
 bleeding on earth, and this illustrious company were 
 buried under ground in the chains of death ? And 
 yet you will say Christ in heaven is made perfect 
 in knowledge and in joy, but his perfection admits 
 of improvement. 
 
 Now if the head be not above the capacity of all 
 growth and addition, surely the members cannot 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 283 
 
 pretend to it. But I shall propose several more 
 arguments for this truth in the following section. 
 
 SECT. IV. 
 
 Of the Increase of the Saints above in Knowledge, 
 Holiness, and Joy. 
 
 That there is and hath been, and will be continual 
 progress and improvement in the knowledge and joy 
 of separate souls, may be easily proved many ways ; 
 namely, from the very nature of human reason itself: 
 from the narrowness, the weakness and limitation 
 even of our intellectual faculties in their best estate : 
 from the immense variety of objects that we shall 
 converse about : from our peculiar concern in some 
 future providences, which it is not likely we should 
 know before they occur : and from the glorious new 
 scenes of the resurrection. 
 
 1. We may prove the increase of knowledge 
 amongst the blessed above, from the very nature of 
 human reason itself, which is a faculty of drawing 
 inferences, or some new propositions and conclu- 
 sions, from propositions or principles which we 
 knew before. Now surely we shall not be dis- 
 possessed of this power when we come to heaven. 
 What we learn of God there, and the glories of his 
 nature, or his works, will assist and incline us to 
 draw inferences for his honour, and for our worship 
 of him. And if we could be supposed to have 
 never so many propositions or new principles of 
 knowledge crowded into our minds at the first 
 
284 ... THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 entrance into heaven, yet surely our reasoning 
 faculty would still be capable of making some ad- 
 vance by way of inference, or building some super- 
 structure upon so noble a foundation. And who 
 knows the intense pleasure that will arise perpe- 
 tually to a contemplative mind, by a progressive 
 and infinite pursuit of truth in this manner ; where 
 we are secure against the danger of all error and 
 mistake, and every step we take is all light and 
 demonstration. 
 
 Shall it be objected here, that our reason shall be 
 %as it were lost and dissolved in intuition and imme- 
 diate sight, and therefore it shall have no room or 
 place in that happy world ? 
 
 To this T would reply, That we shall have indeed 
 much more acquaintance with spiritual objects by 
 immediate intuition, that) we ever had here on earth ; 
 but it does not follow thence, that we shall lose our 
 reason. Angels have immediate \ision of God and 
 divine things ; but can we suppose they are utterly 
 incapable of drawing an inference, either for the 
 improvement of their knowledge, or the direction of 
 their practice ? Whiii they behold any special and 
 more curious piece of divine workmanship, can they 
 not further infer the exquisite skill or wisdom of the 
 Creator ? And are they not capable of concluding, 
 that this peculiar instance of divine wisdom demands 
 an adoring thought ? Thus intuition or immediate 
 sight in a creature, does not utterly exclude and 
 forbid the use of reason. 
 
 I reply again ; can it. ever be imagined, that being 
 released from the body, we shall possess in one 
 moment, and retain through every moment of eter- 
 nity, all the innumerable ranks, and orders, and 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 285 
 
 numbers of propositions, truths, and duties, that 
 may be derived in a long succession of ages by the 
 use of our reasoning powers ? But this leads me to 
 the second argument, namely, 
 
 2. The weakness and narrowness of human un- 
 derstandings in their best estate, seen^s to make it 
 necessary that knowledge should be progressive. 
 
 Continual improvement in knowledge and delight 
 among the spirits of the just made perfect, is neces- 
 sary for the same reason that proved their variety 
 of entertainments and pleasures, namely, because 
 creatures cannot take in all the vast and infinite 
 variety of conceptions in the full brightness and per- 
 fection of them at once, of which they are capable 
 in a sweet succession. Can we ever persuade our- 
 selves, that all the endless train of thoughts, and 
 ideas, and scenes of joy, that shall ever pass through 
 the mind of a saint through the long ages of eternity, 
 should be crowded into every single mind the first 
 moment of its entrance into those happy regions ? 
 And is a human mind capacious enough to receive 
 and strong enough to retain such an infinite multi- 
 tude of ideas for ever ? Or is this the manner of 
 God's working among his intellectual creatures ? 
 Surely God knows our frame and pours in light 
 and glory as we are able to bear it. Such a bright 
 confusion of notions, images, and transports, would 
 probably overwhelm the most exalted spirit, and 
 drown all the noble faculties of the mind at once. 
 As if a man who was born blind, should be healed 
 in an instant, and should open his eyes first against 
 the full blaze of the noon-day sun ; this would so 
 tumultuate the spirits, and confound the organs of 
 sight, as to reduce the man back again to his first 
 
280 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 blindness, and perhaps might render hiin incurable 
 for ever. 
 
 3. .This argument will be much strengthened, if 
 we do but take a short view of the vast and incom- 
 prehensible variety of objects that may be proposed 
 to our minds in the future state, and may feast our 
 contemplation, and improve our joy. 
 
 The blessed God himself is an infinite being: his 
 perfections and glories are unbounded : his wisdom, 
 his holiness, his goodness, his faithfulness, his power 
 and justice, his all-sufficiency, his self-origination, 
 *and his unfathomable eternity, have such a number 
 of rich ideas belonging to each of them, that no 
 creature shall ever fully understand. Yet it is but 
 reasonable to believe that he will communicate so 
 much of himself to us by degrees, as he sees neces- 
 sary for our business and blessedness in that upper 
 world. Can it be supposed that we should know 
 every thing that belongs to God all at once, which 
 he may discover to us gradually as our capacities 
 improve ? Can we think that an infant-soul that 
 had no time for improvement here, when it enters 
 into heaven shall know every thing concerning God, 
 that it can ever attain to through all the ages of its 
 immortality ? When a blessed spirit has dwelt in 
 heaven a thousand years, and conversed with God 
 and Christ, angels and fellow-spirits during all that 
 season, shall it know nothing more of the nature and 
 wondrous properties of God than it knew the first 
 moment of its arrival there*? , 
 
 * God himself hath infinite goodness in him, which the creature 
 cannot' take in at once; they arc taking of it in eternally. The 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 287 
 
 But I add further, the works of God shall doubt- 
 less bo the matter of our search and delightful survey, 
 as well as the nature and properties of God himself. 
 His works are honourable and glorious, and sought 
 out of all that have pleasure in them, Psal. cxi. 2, 3. 
 In his works we shall read his name, his properties, 
 and his glories, whether we fix our thoughts on 
 creation or providence. 
 
 The works of God and his wonders of creation 
 in the known and unknown worlds, both as to the 
 number, the variety and vastness of them, are almost 
 infinite ; that is, they transcend all the limits of our 
 ideas, and all our present capacities to conceive. 
 Now there is none of these works of wonder, but 
 may administer some entertainment to the mind of 
 man, and may richly furnish him with new matter 
 for the praise of God in the long successions of 
 eternity. •* 
 
 There is scarce an animal of the more complete 
 kind, but would entertain an angel with rich curiosi- 
 ties, and feed his contemplation for an age. What 
 a rich and artful structure of flesh upon the solid 
 and well-compacted foundation of bones ! What 
 curious joints and hinges, on which the limbs are 
 moved to and fro ! What an inconceivable variety 
 of nerves, veins, arteries, fibres, and little invisible 
 parts, are found in every member ! What various 
 fluids, blood and juices, run through and agitate 
 the innumerable slender tubes, the hollow strings 
 and strainers of the body ! What millions of fold- 
 
 saints see in God still things fresli, which they saw not hi the 
 beginning of their blessedness. Dr. T. Goodwin. 
 
288 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 ing-doors are fixed within, to stop those red or 
 transparent rivulets in their courses, either to pre- 
 vent their return backwards, or else as a means to 
 swell the muscles and move the limbs ! What 
 endless contrivances to secure life, to nourish nature, 
 and to propagate the same to future animals ! What 
 amazing lengths of holy meditation would an angel 
 run upon these subjects ! And what sublime strains 
 of praise would a heavenly philosopher raise hourly 
 to the almighty and all-wise Creator! And all this 
 *from the mere brutal world ! 
 
 But if we survey the nature of man, he is a crea- 
 ture made up of mind and animal united, and would 
 furnish still more numerous and exalted materials 
 for contemplation and praise ; for he has all the 
 richest wonders of animal nature in him, besides the 
 unknown mysteries of mind or spirit. Surely it will 
 create a sacred pleasure in happy souls above, to 
 learn the wonders of divine skill exerted and shining 
 in their own formation, and in the curious workman- 
 ship of those bodily engines in which they once 
 dwelt and acted. 
 
 Then let them descend to herbs and plants. 
 How numerous are all the products of earth upon 
 her green surface ! And all within her dark bowels ! 
 All the vegetable and the mineral kingdoms ! How 
 many centuries would all these entertain a heavenly 
 enquirer ! 
 
 The worlds of air, and the worlds of water, the 
 planetary and the starry worlds, are. still new objects 
 rich with curiosities ; these are all monuments of 
 divine wisdom, and fit subjects for the contempla- 
 tion of the blessed. Nor can we be supposed to 
 have for ever done with them all when we leave this 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 239 
 
 body ; and that for two reasons ; one is, because 
 God has never yet received the honour due to his 
 wisdom and power, displayed in the material creation, 
 from the hands or tongues of men. And the other 
 is, because the spirits of the just shall be joined to 
 bodies again, and then they shall certainly have 
 necessary converse with God's material works and 
 worlds ; though perhaps they have more acquaint- 
 ance with them now in their separate state, than we 
 are apprized of. 
 
 And besides all these material works of God, 
 what an unknown variety of other wonders belong 
 to the world of pure spirits, which lie hid from us, 
 and are utterly concealed behind the veil of flesh 
 and blood ! What are their natures, and the reach 
 of their powers ! What ranks and orders they are 
 distributed into ! What are their governments, their 
 several employments, the different customs and 
 manners of life in the various and most extensive 
 regions of that intellectual world ! What are their 
 messages to our earth ! or the other habitable 
 globes, and what capacities they are endowed with 
 to move or influence animate or inanimate bodies ! 
 All these, and a thousand more of the like nature, 
 are made known doubtless to the inhabitants of 
 heaven. These are things that belong to the pro- 
 vinces of light and immortality, but many of them 
 are mysteries to us who dwell in these tabernacles : 
 they lie far beyond our ken, and are wrapt up in 
 sacred darkness, that w r e can hardly do so much as 
 shoot a guess at them. 
 
 Now can we suppose that the meanest spirit in 
 heaven has a full and entire survey of all these in- 
 numerable works of God, from the first moment of 
 
 (13.) 2 o 
 
230 THE HAPPINESS OP 
 
 its entrance thither, throughout all the ages of im- 
 mortality, without the change of one idea, or the 
 possibility of any improvement ? This would be to 
 give a sort of omniscience to every happy spirit, 
 which is more than is generally allowed to the man 
 Christ Jesus. And if there be such a tiling as 
 degrees of glory among the saints above, we may 
 be well assured that the lowest rank of blessed 
 spirits is not advanced to this amazing degree. 
 
 Is there no new thing neither under nor above 
 the sun, that God can entertain any of his children 
 % with in the upper world, throughout the infinite 
 extent of all future ages? Are they all made at 
 once so much like God, as to know all things ? Or 
 if each of them have their stinted size of knowledge, 
 and their limited number of ideas at their first re- 
 lease from the body, then they are everlastingly cut 
 off from all the surprises of pleasure that arise from 
 new thoughts, and new scenes, and new discoveries. 
 Does every saint in heaven read God's great volume 
 of nature through and through the first hour he arrives 
 there ? Or is each spirit confined to a certain num- 
 ber of leaves, and bound eternally to learn nothing 
 new, but to review perpetually his own limited 
 lesson ? Dares he not, or can he not turn over 
 another leaf, and read his Creator's name in it, anil 
 adore his wisdom in new wonders of contrivance ? 
 These things are improbable to such a high degree, 
 that I dare almost pronounce them untrue. 
 
 The book of providence is another volume where- 
 in God writes his name too. Has every single saint 
 such a vast and infinite length of foreknowledge given 
 him at his first admission into glory, that he knows 
 beforehand all the future scenes of providence, and 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 29« 
 
 the wonders which God shall work in the upper 
 and lower worlds ? I thought the lion of the tribe of 
 Judah, the root and the offspring of David, had been 
 the only person in heaven or earth that was worthy 
 to take the book, and to loose the seven seats thereof. 
 Rev. v. 5. Surely the meanest of the saints does 
 not foreknow all those great and important counsels 
 of God, which our Lord Jesus Christ is intrusted 
 with. And yet we may venture to say, that the 
 spirits of the just in heaven shall know those great 
 and important events that relate to the church on 
 earth, as they arise in successive seasons, that they 
 may give to God and to his Son Jesus Christ 
 revenues of due honour upon this account, as I 
 shall prove immediately. 
 
 And indeed if the limits of their knowledge in 
 heaven were so fixed at their first entrance there, 
 that they could never be acquainted with any of 
 these successive providences of God afterwards, we 
 here on earth have a great advantage above them, 
 who see daily the accomplishment of his divine 
 councils, and adore the wonders of his wisdom and 
 his love ; and from this daily increase of knowledge, 
 .ve take our share in the growing joys and blessings 
 of Zion. 
 
 But this thought leads me to the fourth argument 
 for the increase of knowledge in heaven. 
 
 4. There have been, and there are many future 
 providences on earth, and transactions in heaven, in 
 which the spirits of the just have a very great and 
 near concernment, and therefore they must know 
 ihem. when they come to pass; and yet it is by no 
 means probable, that they are known in all their 
 
?93 THE HAPPEN ESS OF 
 
 glorious circumstances beforehand by every spirit 
 in heaven. 
 
 Let us descend a little to some particular in- 
 stances, and see whether we cannot make it appear 
 from Scripture with most convincing evidence, that 
 the saints in heaven obtain some additions to their 
 knowledge, by the various new transactions in 
 heaven and in earth. 
 
 When our blessed Lord had fulfilled his state of 
 sorrows and sufferings on earth, and ascended into 
 heaven in his glorified human nature, wiih all the 
 scars of honour, and the ensigns of victory about 
 him ; when the Lamb appeared in the midst of the 
 throne with the marks of slaughter and death upon 
 him, and presented himself before God in the midst 
 of angels and antient patriarchs, with the accom- 
 plishment of all the types and promises about him 
 written in letters of blood ; did not those blessed 
 angels, did not the spirits of those patriarchs learn 
 something more of the mysteries of our redemption, 
 and the wondrous glories of the Redeemer, than 
 what they were acquainted with before ? And did 
 not this new glorious scene spread new ideas, new 
 joys and wonders through the heavenly world ? 
 Can the principalities and powers in heavenly places 
 gain by the church on earth any farther discoveries 
 of the manifold wisdom of God ? Eph. iii. 10. And 
 can we believe that when Christ, the Head of the 
 church, entered into heaven in so illustrious a man- 
 ner, that these powers, principalities and blessed 
 spirits, got no brighter discoveries of divine wisdom ? 
 To what purpose do they look and pry into these 
 things, 1 Pet. i. 12. if after all their searches they 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 293 
 
 make no advances in knowledge ? And nirist 
 angels he the only proficients in these sublime 
 sciences, while human spirits make no improve- 
 ment ? Can it be supposed that those antient 
 fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom the 
 promises were made, that all the nations should be 
 blessed in their seed, had no transporting- pleasures 
 whan they first beheld that promised seed crowned 
 with all his glory ? When they saw their Sou Jesus 
 ascending on high, and leading captivity captive, 
 and the chariots of God that attended him were 
 twenty thousand even an innumerable company of 
 angels, Psal. lxviii. 17, 18. 
 
 If upon this occasion we may talk in the language 
 of mortals, may we not suppose those antient fathers 
 raising themselves on high, and overlooking the walls 
 of paradise, to gaze downward upon this ascending 
 triumph ? May we not imagine them speaking thus 
 to each other in the holy transport? " And is this 
 our great descendant ? Is this our long-expected 
 offspring ? How divine his aspect ! Hoav God- 
 like his air ! How glorious and adorable all the 
 graces of his countenance ! Is this (saith holy Da- 
 vid) my son and my Lord ? the King of glory, for 
 whose admission I called the gates of heaven to be 
 lifted up, and opened the everlasting doors for him 
 in an antient song ? Is this the man, whose hands 
 and whose feet they pierced on earth, as I once 
 foretold by the spirit of prophecy ? I see those 
 blessed scars of honour ; how they adorn his glori- 
 fied limbs ! I acknowledge and adore my God 
 and my Saviour. I begun his triumph once on my 
 harp in a lower strain, and I behold him now ascend- 
 
294 I UK HAPPINESS OF 
 
 iug on nigh : awake my glory ; he comes, he comes 
 with the sound of a trumpet, and with the pomp of 
 shouting angels ; sing praises, all ye saints, unto our 
 God, sing praises, sing praises unto our King, sing 
 praises. Is this, (saith Isaiah, the child horn, of 
 whom I spoke? Is this the Son given, of whom 
 \ prophesied ? I adore him as the mighty God, the 
 Father of ages, and the Prince of Peace, I see the 
 righteous branch, (adds the prophet Jeremy,) the 
 righteous branch from the stem of David, from the 
 root of Jesse. This is the King whom I fore- 
 told should reign in righteousness : The Lord my 
 Righteousness is his name : I rejoice at his ap- 
 pearance, the throne of heaven is made ready for 
 him. This, (saith Daniel,) is the Messiah, the Prince 
 who was cut off, but not for himself: the seventy 
 weeks are ail fulfilled, and the work is done.. He 
 hath finished transgression, and made an end of sin, 
 and hath brought in everlasting righteousness for all 
 his people. But was this the person, (saith Zachary 
 the prophet,) whom they sold for thirty pieces of 
 silver ? Vile indignity and impious madness ! Be- 
 hold he now appears like the man who is fellow, or 
 companion to the Lord of hosts. It is he, (saith 
 Malachi,) it is he, the messenger of the covenant, 
 who came suddenly to his own temple. There I 
 held him in my withered arms (saith aged Simeon) 
 and rapture and prophecy came upon me at once, 
 and I expired in joy and praises." 
 
 And we hope our mother Eve stood up among 
 the rest of them, and beheld and confessed the 
 promised seed of the woman. " O blessed Saviour, 
 that didst break tfte head of the seroent, though thy 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 295 
 
 heel was bruised ; and hast abolished the mischief 
 that my folly and his temptation had brought into 
 thy new created world !" 
 
 Now could we ever suppose all this to be done 
 in the upper regions, witli- no new smiles upon the 
 countenances of the saints, no special increase of 
 joy among the spirits of the just made perfect? 
 God himself stands in no need of the magnificence 
 of these transactions : Christ Jesus receives the new 
 honours, and all the old inhabitants of heaven taste 
 new and unknown satisfaction in the honours they 
 pay to their exalted Saviour. 
 
 Some of the antients were of opinion that the 
 souls of the fathers before the ascension of Christ 
 were not admitted into the holy of holies, or the 
 blissful vision of God; but that it ^was ' our Lord 
 Jesus, our great High Priest, at his ascent to the 
 throne, led the way thither ; he rent the veil of" the 
 lower heaven, and carried with him the armies of 
 patriarchal souls into some upper and brighter, and 
 more joyful regions, whereas before they were only 
 admitted into a state of peace and rest. Whether 
 this be so or no, the Scripture does not sufficiently 
 declare : but whatsoever region of heaven they were 
 placed in, we may be well assured from the very 
 nature of things, that such transactions as the trium- 
 phant ascent of Christ, could never pass through 
 any of the upper worlds without enlarging the know- 
 ledge and the joy of the blessed inhabitants. 
 
 When our Lord Jesus Christ sat down at the 
 right hand of God, he prevailed to open the book 
 of divine counsels and decrees, Rev. v. 5. and to 
 acquaint himself with all the contents ; and this was 
 necessary, that he might manage and govern the 
 
296 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 affairs of the church and the world in the several 
 successive ages according to the counsels of the 
 Father. He therefore, and he alone among crea- 
 tures, knows the end from the beginning, as I hinted 
 before. But as the seals of this book are opened 
 by degrees, and the counsels of God are executed 
 in the lower world, doubtless the angels, that are 
 ministers of the providence of Christ, carry tidings 
 to heaven of all the greater changes that relate to 
 the church ; and Jesus the Son of God, the king of 
 ^saints and of nations, receives the shouts and honours 
 of the heavenly world, as fast as the joyful tidings 
 arrive thither. 
 
 Nor is this spoken by mere conjecture, for the 
 Scripture informs us of the certainty of it. We have 
 frequent accounts in the book of Revelation, of new 
 special honours that were paid to him that sits upon 
 the throne, and to the Lamb at certain special periods 
 of time. 
 
 When he first took upon him the execution of his 
 father's decrees, The living creatures and elders fell 
 down before the Lamb, and they sung a new song, 
 saying. Thou art worthy to take the book, and to 
 open the seals thereof ; a?id ten thousand times ten 
 thousand angels echoed to the song with a loud voice, 
 Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, <§~c. Rev. v. 8, 9, 
 11. So when the servants of God were scaled in 
 their forelieads, the innumerable multitude of saints 
 shouted salvation to our God which sitteth upon t/if- 
 throne, and to the Lamb, Rev. vii. 3, 9, 10. So 
 when the seventh angel sounded, there were great 
 voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world 
 are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his 
 Christ, and he shall reig?ifor ever and ever ; and the 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 297 
 
 four and twenty elders fell upon their faces, and wor- 
 shipped and gave thanks, Rev. xi. 15, 10. Again, 
 when the old dragon and his angels icere cast out of 
 heaven, there was a loud voice, saying, Now is come 
 salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, 
 and the power of his Christ ; for the accuser of our 
 brethren is cast down, Rev. xii. 9, 10. So upon the 
 fall of Babylon, ch. xiv. and the victory of the saints, 
 ch. xv. and the final destruction of Antichrist, ch. 
 xix. there are new honours done by the saints to 
 God the Father and his Son Jesus. There are new 
 songs addressed to them at these surprising revolu- 
 tions on earth, these wondrous turns of judgment to 
 the world, and merry to the church ; all which 
 supposes that the heavenly inhabitants are acquaint- 
 ed with them, and thus their knowledge and their 
 joys increase. 
 
 Objection. But does not the prophet Isaiah say 
 in the name of the church of Israel, Abrahams 
 ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledges us not ? Isa. 
 Ixiii. 16. 
 
 Answer 1. The words knowledge and acknow 
 ledgment often signify a friendly and beneficial care 
 manifested in special acts of kindness and benefits 
 conferred. Therefore the tribe of Levi is said 
 " neither to have seen his father or his mother, nor 
 to acknowledge his brethren, nor to know his own 
 children, Deut. xxxiii. 9. because the sons of Levi 
 slew every man his brother, and every man his 
 neighbour, to execute the vengeance of the Lord 
 upon them," Exod. xxxii. 26—29. So Abraham 
 and Israel, in heaven, in the same sense, know not 
 their posterity on earth, when they approve of the 
 anger of God let out upon them, and afford them 
 
 (13.) 2 p 
 
208 IIIC HAPPINESS OF 
 
 no defence. This interpretation perfectly agrees 
 with the context. But it does not follow that 
 Abraham and Israel were utterly unacquainted with 
 all the greater events of providence towards the 
 Jewish nation, though perhaps they might not know 
 the lesser and more minute circumstances of their 
 afflictions or their deliverances. 
 
 Answer 2. If we could suppose that the souls of 
 the antient patriarchs were ignorant of the affairs of 
 their posterity before the coming of the Messiah, yet 
 rince Christ in our nature now dwells in the midst 
 of them, and has taken the book of divine counsels 
 into his own hands, since the great God-man rules 
 all things in the upper and the lower worlds, it is 
 not probable that Abraham and Israel are so igno- 
 rant of the affairs of the church, as they were in the 
 days of Isaiah. 
 
 And not only the greater and more extensive dis- 
 pensations that attend the church on earth, are made 
 known to the spirits of the just made perfect ; but 
 even some lesser and particular concerns are very 
 probably revealed to them also. 
 
 Is it not said, that when one sinner on earth re- 
 pents, there is joy among the angels in heaven? Luke 
 xv. 7, 10. for every such convert is a new trophy of 
 divine grace. And when the spirits of the just in 
 heaven shall [in successive seasons behold one and 
 another of their old relatives and acquaintance on 
 earth entering in at the gates and received into 
 heaven, can we imagine there is no new joy amongst 
 them ? Do the pleasures of angels increase when 
 they see a man brought into the state of grace, and 
 shall not the souls of men testify their exultation 
 ami d rlight, when they see one of their fellow-souls, 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 290 
 
 perhaps a dear and inward friend, translated to the 
 state of glory ? Surely every increase of that happy 
 world shall diffuse increasing joy through the Holy 
 Ones that dwell in it; and those shall have the 
 sweetest taste of this joy, that had the nearest 
 concern in it. O the transporting and celestial 
 gratulations that pass between two souls of infinite 
 endearment at their first meeting there |i.-*- * • 
 
 The last argument that 1 shall use, and it is also 
 the last instance I shall mention, wherein the know- 
 ledge and the pleasure of glorified saints must re- 
 ceive addition and improvement, is, the great resur- 
 rection day. 
 
 The spirits of men are formed on purpose for 
 union with bodies, and if they could attain complete 
 happiness in the highest degree without them, what 
 need would there be of new-creating their bodies 
 from the dust ? Upon this supposition the resurrec- 
 tion itself must seem to be almost in vain. But it 
 is evident from the word of God, that the spirits of 
 the just with all the perfections that belong to a 
 separate state, wait yet for greater perfection when 
 their bodies shall be restored to them ; for as they 
 suffered pain and agony in the body, they shall have 
 a recoinpence of pleasure in the body too. " All 
 the days of their appointed time they wait, till this 
 blessed change shall come, Job xiv. 14. God shall 
 call, and the dust of the saints shall answer : God 
 the Creator will have a desire again to the work of 
 his own hands," ver. 15. and the happy souls will 
 have a desire to be rejoined to their old companions. 
 
 O glorious hour ! O blessed meeting-time ! A 
 magnificent and divine spectacle, worthy to attract 
 the eves of all the creation : when the long-divided 
 
JGO THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 parts of human nature shall be united with unknown 
 powers and glories! When these bodies shall be 
 called out of their long' dark dungeon, all fashioned 
 anew, and all new dressed in immortality and 
 sun-beams ! When these spirits shall assume and 
 animate their limbs again, exulting in new life and 
 everlasting vigour ! 
 
 Now can we suppose it possible that all this vast 
 and amazing change shall be made by the conflagra- 
 tion of the earth and the lower heavens, by the awful 
 and illustrious splendors and solemnities of the last 
 * judgment, by the bodies of millions of saints and 
 sinners arising into a painful or joyful immortality, 
 and yet no new ideas hereby communicated to the 
 happy spirits; no increase of their knowledge, or 
 improvement of their joys ? 
 
 Shall the apostles and the prophets, the confes- 
 sors and the martyrs, stand at the right hand of 
 Christ, and be owned and acknowledged by him 
 with divine applause in the sight of the whole crea- 
 tion, and yet have no new transports of pleasure 
 running through their souls ? Shall they be absolved 
 and approved by the voice of God, with thousands 
 of applauding angels, in the face of heaven, earth, 
 and hell, and all this without any advancement of 
 their knowledge or their blessedness ? Shall St. 
 Paul meet the Thessalonian converts in the presence 
 of his Lord Jesus, those souls who were once his 
 labour and his hope, and shall they not at that day 
 appear to be his glory and his joy ? Does not he 
 himself tell them so in his iirst epistle, chap. if. ver. 
 19, 20? And can we believe that he or they shall 
 be disappointed ? Shall that great apostle see the 
 immense fruits of his labours, the large harvest ot 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. ,301 
 
 souls which he gathered from many provinces of 
 Europe and Asia, all appearing at once in their 
 robes of light and victory, and shall he fee! no new 
 inward exultations of spirit, at such a sight? and 
 doubtless many thousand souls, whom he never 
 Knew on earth, shall be made known to him at that 
 day, and own their conversion to his sacred writings. 
 And shall all this make no addition»to his pleasures? 
 The very mention of so absurd a doctrine refutes 
 and condemns itself 
 
 The saints at that day, shall as it were, be brought 
 into a new world, and he that sits upon the throne 
 shall make all things new ; and as he crowns his 
 happy followers with new and unknown blessings, 
 so shall he receive the homage of new and unknown 
 praises. This is a new heaven and a fiew earth in- 
 deed, beyond all our present apprehensions ; and 
 the magnificent language of prophecy shall be ful- 
 filled in its utmost force and brightness. 
 
 Doubtless there are pleasures to be enjoyed by 
 complete human nature, by unbodied souls, which 
 a mere separate spirit is not capable of. Is it not 
 part of the blessedness of human spirits, to enjoy 
 mutual society and hold a pleasing correspondence 
 with each other ? But whatsoever be the means 
 and methods of that correspondence in a separate 
 state, surely it wants something of that complete 
 pleasure and sensible intimacy, which they shall 
 made partakers of, when they shall hold noble com* 
 munion in their bodies raised from the dust, and 
 refined from every weakness. Is it not the happi- 
 ness of the saints in heaven to see their glorified 
 Saviour? But even this sight is and must be in- 
 complete, till they are endued with bodily organs 
 
THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 again. What converse soever the spirits of the just 
 have with I he glorified man Jesus, while they are 
 absent from the body, yet I am persuaded it is not, 
 nor can it be so full aud perfect in all respects, as it 
 shall be at the general resurrection. They cannot 
 now see him face to face in the literal sense, and 
 they wait for this exalted pleasure, this immediate 
 and beatific sight. Job himself yet waits, though 
 the worms have destroyed his body, till that glorious 
 hour, when in his flesh he shall see God, Job xix. 
 26. even God, his Redeemer, who shall stand at the 
 last day on the earth, ver. 25. 
 
 Not only all the saints on earth, who Jiave received 
 the flrst Jruils of the Spirit, wait for the adoption, 
 that is, the redemption of the body, Rom. viii. 23. 
 But the saints in heaven also live there, waiting till 
 the body be redeemed from the grave, and then- 
 adoption shall appear with illustrious evidence ; 
 then they shall all look like the sons of God, like 
 Jesus the first beloved and the first-born. The 
 spirits above, how perfectly soever they are in the 
 joys of the separate state, yet wait for those endless 
 scenes of unkuown delight that shall succeed the 
 resurrection. 
 
 And there is abundant reason for it to be drawn 
 from the word of God : for the Scripture speaks 
 but very little concerning the blessedness of separate 
 souls, in comparison of the frequent and large ac- 
 counts of the glory and triumph that shall attend the 
 sound of the last trumpet and the great rising-day. 
 It is to this blessed hour that the apostles -in their 
 writings are always directing the hope of the saints. 
 They are ever pointing to this glorious morning, as 
 <he season when they shall receive their reward am 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 303 
 
 their prize, their promised joy and their crown \ as 
 though all that they had received before, in their 
 state of separation, were hardly to be named in 
 comparison of that more exceeding and eternal 
 weight of additional glory. 
 
 What new kind of sensations shall entertain us in 
 that day, what a rich variety of scenes we shall 
 enjoy, what well appointed and immortal organs 
 we shall be furnished with, instead of our present 
 feeble eyes and ears, and what glorious and trans- 
 porting objects shall surround us in those unknown 
 worlds, and fill the enlarged powers of the soul with 
 sensible as well as intellectual delights : these are 
 wonders too sublime even for our present conjecture, 
 and are all reserved iu the counsels of God, to com- 
 plete the final felicity of the saints. 
 
 Thus we have made it appear, that the knowledge 
 and joy that belongs to the spirits of the just made 
 perfect, may admit of large increase*. 
 
 But can their holiness be increased too ? Can 
 perfect holiness receive any improvement ? 
 
 I will not assert any thing in this matter, lest the 
 manner of expression should offend weaker minds ; 
 but I desire leave to enquire, whether those who 
 know most of God, do not love him best ? Whether 
 those who have the brightest and fullest visions of 
 him, are not most transformed into his image, and 
 made most nearly like to him ? Now if the separate 
 
 * There is a little Treatise, called, The Future State, displaying 
 the progressive knowledge of the blessed in heaven, written by a 
 country gentleman, published 1683, wherein are many ingenious 
 thoughts on this subject. 
 
304 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 spirits in heaven are advanced to different degrees 
 of divine knowledge, may they not in this sense 
 have different degrees of holiness too ? Is it not 
 possible that one saint should love God more in- 
 tensely than another, and be more impressed with 
 his likeness, as he beholds more of his beanty ? Is 
 it not possible that a soul shall grow in the strength 
 and fervour of its love and zeal for God, and be 
 more exactly assimilated to him, as it gets nearer 
 to God, and grows up into higher measures of ac- 
 quaintance with him ? Has not the angel Gabriel, 
 the apostle Paul, and the glorified human nature of 
 Christ, in any respect more of holiness, or love, or 
 likeness to God, than the meanest saint or angel in 
 heaven ? Is not their sublimer knowledge and 
 nearness to God attended with proportionable rays 
 of divine sanctity and glory ? Is not the divine 
 image in these exalted saints more complete than in 
 the very lowest ? 
 
 And yet we may boldly assert, that the meanest 
 saint or angel there, is so perfect in holiness, as to 
 be free from all sin : there is nothing to be found in 
 any spirit there, contrary to the nature or the will of 
 God. So a soul released from the body may per- 
 haps grow in likeness and love to God perpetually ; 
 and yet it may have no sinful defects either in its 
 love or conformity to God from the first moment of 
 its entrance into heaven. 
 
 I shall first illustrate this by two similitudes, and 
 then propose a rational and clear account of it in a 
 way of argument. 
 
 When the distant morning-sun shines on a piece 
 of polished metal, the metal reflects the face of the 
 sun in perfection, when the sun first rises on it. 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 305 
 
 But the same instrument coming directly under the 
 meridian sun-beams shall reflect the same image 
 brighter and warmer : and yet every moment of this 
 reflection, from the morning to the highest noon, 
 shall be perfect, that is, without spot, without 
 blemish, and without defect. Such perhaps is the 
 holiness of all the saints in heaven. 
 
 Or shall I rather borrow a similitude from Scrip- 
 ture, and say, the hoMness of the spirits in heaven 
 is compared to fine linen ? Rev. xix. 8. The fine 
 linen clean and white, is the righteousness of the 
 saints. Now though a garment may be perfectly 
 clean, without the least spot or stain, yet line linen 
 may grow whiter hourly, as it is bleached by the 
 constant influence of the heavens. So though every 
 spirit be perfectly cleansed and purified from all sin 
 and defilement, yet it is not impossible that the 
 degrees of its grace and holiness, or conformity to 
 God, may grow brighter, and much improve by 
 nearer approaches to God, longer acquaintance with 
 him, and the continued influences of his majesty and 
 love. 
 
 Now let me propose a rational account of this 
 matter to the consideration of those, whose minds 
 are raised above common prejudices. 
 
 The holiness of an innocent creature consists in 
 attaining the knowledge of the nature and will of 
 God, according to the utmost of its own present 
 capacity, and the means of discovery which it 
 enjoys, and the various exercises of love to God in 
 an exact proportion to its knowledge : or, to express 
 it briefly thus, an innocent creature is perfectly holy, 
 when it knows and loves God to the utmost reach 
 of its present powers. If this be done, there is no 
 
 (13.) 2 q 
 
THE HAPPINESS 01 
 
 sinful defect, no guilty imperfection ; and yet there 
 may be almost an infinite difference in the various 
 degrees of power and capacity, of knowledge and 
 love, amongst innocent spirits: one spirit may be 
 formed capable of knowing much more of his 
 Maker than another, and may be favoured with 
 richer discoveries. Now if every new divine dis- 
 covery raise an equal proportion of love in the soul, 
 then it is possible that any soul might be perfectly 
 holy at its first entrance into heaven; and yet may 
 make sublime advances in holiness hourly. 
 
 Can we suppose that innocent Adam, at his very 
 formation in paradise, knew all the wonders of divine 
 wisdom and goodness that ever he was designed to 
 attain, had he lived sinless and immortal ? And 
 then can we believe, since his knowledge of his 
 Maker's goodness and wisdom was to receive con- 
 tinual advances, that he should admire him no more, 
 and love him no better after a thousand years con- 
 verse with him, than he did at his first creation ? 
 Now the case of the saints in heaven is much the 
 same. The rule and measure of their duty is their 
 knowledge, and the rule and measure of their know- 
 ledge, is their own capacity and their means of dis- 
 covery t They never fall short of their duty, and 
 therefore they have no sin : and thus their holiness 
 may be every moment perfect, and yet perhaps, 
 every moment increasing, as their capacities are 
 enlarged, and receive new discoveries through all 
 the ages of their immortality. 
 
 Happy souls! whose aspiring knowledge, and 
 love and zeal, move onward hourly, and get still 
 nigher to their God ! Surely, while they behold 
 his face in the unveiled beauties of his holiness. 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 307 
 
 they shall love him with warmer zeal, and be more 
 abundantly satisfied with his likeness, Psal. xvii. ult. 
 
 After all that I have said on this subject, some 
 will insist on this objection, namely, " Can there be 
 any such thing as imperfection in heaven ? Is it 
 not said to be a perfect state ?" Now if the spirits 
 above be always growing in excellency and holiness, 
 then they always are defective and eternally imper- 
 fect ; which is very hard to suppose concerning the 
 saints in glory, and contrary to the very expression 
 and letter of my text. 
 
 The answer to this is very easy to all that will give 
 their reason leave to exercise itself upon just ideas, 
 and to think and argue beyond the chime of words. 
 
 Perfection (as I told you before) is not to be taken 
 here in an absolute, but in a comparative sense. 
 Nothing is absolutely perfect but (Tod ; and in a 
 comparison of God, the highest and most exalted 
 of all creatures is, and will be eternally imperfect 
 and defective : the heavens are not pure in his sight, 
 and he charges his angels with jolly, Job iv. 18. 
 Even the man Christ Jesus shall for ever fall short 
 of the perfection of the divine nature to which he 
 is united ; and in this sense will be imperfect for 
 ever. 
 
 But where any creature has attained to such ex- 
 alted degrees of excellency as are far superior to 
 what others have attained, it is the custom of the 
 Scripture to call them perfect, and that with a design 
 to do honour to their character : so Noah ivas a just 
 man, and perfect in his generation, Gen. vi. 9. Job 
 also has this honour done him, he was pe/ject and 
 upright, Job i. 1. And the saints on earth are 
 called perfect in many parts of the word of God, 
 
308 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 even while they are here on earth, and have many 
 defects and imperfections. So though it be literally 
 true that the saints in heaven are continually imper- 
 fect in comparison of God and Christ, and ot what 
 they themselves shall further attain ; yet the Scrip- 
 ture, which delights to do honour to them, chuses 
 rather to call them perfect, because of the sublime 
 degree of excellency they possess above their fellow- 
 saints on earth : and it is not fit for us to degrade 
 them in our common language, by the diminishing 
 and abasing names of defect and imperfection, 
 ^though their present perfection and excellency ad- 
 mits of everlasting increase. 
 
 If any man, after he has read this Treatise thus 
 far, and has duly weighed all the former arguments, 
 can see force enough in this last objection to baffle 
 or destroy them all, or can find terror enough in the 
 mere sound of the word imperfect to forbid his 
 assent; I desire he may not be disturbed in the 
 possession of his own sentiments, till the sweet and 
 surprising sensations of ever-growing felicity con- 
 vince him that heaven is a place of glorious improve- 
 ment. 
 
 This shall suffice for the third general Head of 
 my Discourse, wherein I have shewn that the per- 
 fection of the spirits of the just is such a perfection 
 as admits of a rich variety of employments and 
 pleasures, according to the various taste and in- 
 clination of the blessed ; it allows of their different 
 degrees of felicity, according to their different 
 capacities and preparations : it furnishes each bless- 
 ed spirit with a frequent change of pleasures, arid it 
 gives room for perpetual increase. 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 30P 
 
 SECT. V. 
 
 Of the Means of attaining this Perfection. 
 
 My fourth and last enquiry is this, " How do 
 these good spirits of just men arrive at this perfec- 
 tion ?"" 
 
 I answer, " By the death of the body, and their 
 departure from flesh and blood." 
 
 You will ask what reasons are there, why their 
 departure from the body should bring them into 
 the perfect state ? I will content myself to mention 
 these four. 
 
 I. Because at death their state of trial is ended, 
 and the time of recompence begins by divine ap- 
 pointment : now all their imperfections must end 
 with their state of trial. 
 
 This is the account of things in the Scripture; 
 Ileb. ix. 27. It is appointed for all men once to 
 die, and after death the judgment. At the hour of 
 death these words are spoken aloud in the most 
 dreadful or most delightful language, Rev. xxii. 11. 
 Re that is unjust or filthy, let him be so still: he 
 that is righteous and holy, let him be so still. And 
 then upon the determination of the state, the reward 
 or recompence follows, ver. 12. My reward is 
 with me, to give to every man according as his work 
 shall be. 
 
 Many inconveniences, and imperfections, and 
 difficulties, are proper for a state of trial, and by 
 these methods we are trained up for glory. Christ 
 himself was ignorant of many things in the day of 
 his trial ; his knowledge on earth was imperfect, 
 
310 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 and his joys were so too : for he grew in wisdom 
 and knoivledge ; he was a man of sorrows, and ac- 
 quainted with grief. Though he was a Son, yet he 
 learned obedience by the things that he suffered; and 
 the captain of our salvation ivas made perfect through 
 sufferings, Heb. v. 8. and chap. ii. 10. But when 
 the time of probation and suffering ceases, then 
 perfection is come, and glory appears. 
 
 Hail, blessed spirits above, who have passed your 
 state of trial well ! You have run the laborious 
 race under many burdens, and you have received 
 the prize. You have fought with mighty enemies, 
 you have overcome a thousand difficulties, and you 
 enjoy the crown. No more shall you complain of 
 the mixture of error with your knowledge, no more 
 shall you groan under the perplexities of thought, 
 the tumults of passion, the burdens of indwelling 
 iniquity, nor cry out because of oppressing enemies 
 or sorrows. The hour of your trial is finished. You 
 have been sincere and faithful in your imperfect ser- 
 vices, and you are arrived at the world of perfection. 
 
 II. At the hour of death the spirits of the just 
 leave all the natural and the sinful infirmities of flesh 
 and blood behind them, which are the causes and 
 springs of a thousand imperfections. 
 
 The very natural circumstances and necessities of 
 the body, and the inconveniences that attend it in 
 this frail state, do very much embarass and clog the 
 spirit in its pursuit of knowledge, or holiness, or 
 divine joy. 
 
 The flesh is a dark covering to the soul ; it be- 
 clouds our ideas, confuses our conceptions, and 
 prevents a clear and distinct knowledge of a thou 
 sand objects. It is a dull dark tabernacle for a 
 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. oil 
 
 spirits residence. It has windows indeed to let m 
 the light, but those very windows, like a painted or 
 curled glass, too often discolour the objects, or 
 distort the shape of them. These very senses of 
 ours frequently impose upon us m our searches after 
 truth, and represent things, not as they are in them- 
 selves, and in their own nature, but as they are 
 useful or hurtful to us ; and often we pass a false 
 judgment on the nature of things by their influence, 
 and are led into many mistakes in our enquiries 
 after knowledge. 
 
 Our fancy or imagination raises up false images 
 of things, and we forsake the solid and real truth, to 
 follow the shapes, and colours, and appearances of 
 it painted upon fancy. 
 
 From our very infancy, our souls* are imposed 
 upon by the animal ; we draw in early many false 
 judgments, and establish tliem daily. We are 
 nursed up in prejudice against a hundred truths both 
 in the philosophical, the moral, and the religious 
 life ; and it is the labour of an age even for a wise 
 and good man to wear off a few of them, and to 
 judge with any tolerable freedom, evidence and 
 certainty. 
 
 A great part of our life is spent in sleep, wherein 
 the soul is bound up from exerting any regular 
 thoughts, confined every night to a periodical deli- 
 rium, subjected to all the flattering tyranny of the 
 animal spirits, and dragged away into all the wild 
 wanderings of dreaming nature; and indeed the 
 thoughts of many of us always, and of all of us 
 sometimes, even when we are awake, are but little 
 better, because we perpetually dance after the mo- 
 tions of passion and fancy, and our reason seldom 
 
312 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 judges without them. Alas ! how imperfect is the 
 best of us in knowledge here! 
 
 But knowledge is not the only good of which the 
 body deprives the spirit. The necessities of the 
 body, hunger and thirst, weakness and weariness, 
 and drowsy spirits, sit very heavy upon the soul ? 
 and hinder it in the pursuit of holy and heavenly 
 thoughts, break off many a divine meditation and 
 interrupt and spoil many a delightful piece of wor- 
 ship. In sickness, or in old age, what long and 
 % weighty troubles, what tiresome infirmities clog the 
 soul, and what restless pains of nature overwhelm 
 the spirit, and forbid the lively exercises of devo- 
 tion ! 
 
 And also the sinful appetites and perverse affec- 
 tions of nature are very much seated in flesh and 
 blood : so much that the apostle in many places 
 calls the principles of sin by the general name of 
 ffesh. Read the latter end of the seventh chapter 
 of his epistle to the Romans. How doth he com- 
 plain of the flesh, and members of the body, which 
 are fatal instruments of sin and Satan ! Read the 
 black catalogue of iniquities, Gal. v. 19, 20, 21. and 
 hear them called the ivorks of the flesh. Pride, and 
 malice, and envy, and lust, and covetousness, and 
 wrath, and revenge, are found secretly working in 
 flesh and blood. O how much are the springs of 
 these sinful evils seated in the very composition of 
 depraved animal nature ! And how is the poor 
 labouring spirit of a saint dreadfully betrayed there- 
 by into frequent actual guilt, even notwithstanding 
 all its care and watchfulness ! O wretched men 
 that we are ! who shall shall deliver us ? Blessed 
 be God, there is a time of release. 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 313 
 
 And as our knowledge and our holiness are ren- 
 dered very imperfect, by reason of these sensible 
 and corrupt engines of flesh and blood, so are the 
 joys and satisfactions of the soul perpetually impaired 
 and diminished thereby. The heart of the saint is 
 in pain to feel sin working in it, and the conscience 
 complains under the anguish of guilt. Blessed be 
 God for the balm that is found in the blood of Christ 
 to ease the anguish of conscience. 
 
 Besides, what spirit can eujoy perfect peace, while 
 it is tied to so many thousand nerves, each of which 
 may become an instrument of intense pain and tor- 
 ture ? And the body itself has sharp humours 
 enough in it to corrode those nerves, and fill the 
 indwelling spirit with agonies. What millions of 
 seeds of painful disease lurk in animal nature, that 
 render this body a most uncomfortable dwelling ! 
 And how many thousand strokes and accidents are 
 we liable to from abroad, whence new pains and 
 sorrows are derived to the soul ! The wind and 
 the weather, the rain and the hail, and the scorching 
 sun, the air, the water, and fire, and every element, 
 may afflict the animal, and pain the unhappy spirit. 
 
 But O happy souls, that are free from all the 
 cumbersome and mischievous influences of flesh 
 and blood ! From diese instruments of iniquity, 
 and springs of deadly guilt and torment ! Happy 
 souls, that are released from sick and languishing 
 bodies, from feeble and burdensome limbs, and all 
 the tiresome and painful disorders of dying nature ! 
 That are raised beyond the reach and injury of all 
 these lower elements, these mediums of disease and 
 pain ! Rejoice and triumph, ye prisoners newly 
 discharged, ye feel the pleasurable truths that we 
 
 (14.) 2 R 
 
;jl4 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 guess at, but ye feel and enjoy them with a relish 
 of sublime pleasure beyond all our conjectures. 
 Rejoice and exult in your new liberty, like a bird 
 released from the imprisoning cage, and sing with 
 .sweetest notes to the praise of your Redeemer. O 
 worship and serve him in the full freedom of all 
 your active powers ; attend at his feet with intense 
 delight, and love him with joy unspeakable and full 
 of glory. 
 
 III. By the death of the body, and their release 
 from it, these spirits of the just are free from all the 
 tempting powers and the sinful influences of earth 
 and hell. 
 
 . This world of sensible allurements, and this world 
 of sinful men, hath a mighty influence on the spirits 
 of the saints while they dwell in flesh and blood. 
 How often are we deceived into practices of iniquity 
 by the enticing vanities of this life? How often 
 tempted by evil companions, by flattering mischiefs, 
 and ensnaring circumstances ? And many times 
 too the fear of men and the terror of their threaten- 
 ings, fright us to a neglect of duty, or hurry us into 
 the commission of some actual iniquity. Sometimes 
 the pleasing enjoyments of life tie our hearts to the 
 creatures by the bands of excessive love ; and some- 
 times the injuries and reproaches we receive from 
 them, kindle our fiery passions, and rouse up our 
 sinful wrath and revenge. 
 
 This world also is much under the evil influences 
 of the Prince of darkness ; he is called the God of 
 this world : it is greatly given up to the ravages of 
 the roaring lion, and he worries the spirits of the 
 saints while they dwell within his territories, though 
 he is not suffered to destroy and devour them. 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 515 
 
 But at the moment of death the happy spirit is 
 released from the senses, and thereby from the im- 
 pressions of all sensible things. 
 
 All the flattering vanities of this lower world have 
 no more power to entice the soul, than the grossest 
 sensualities could entice a pure angel. Sinful com- 
 panions can no more invite, and threatening tyrants 
 have no more power to terrify. 
 
 The spirit is then got out of the territories of 
 satan ; he is prince of the power of the air, but his 
 dominion reaches no farther. The heaven where 
 Christ is, never admits him ; Michael with his 
 angels hath cast out the old dragon and his angels, 
 and there is no more place found for them there. 
 Happy spirits, delivered and secured from the devil 
 and the world at once, and from all their tempting 
 and destructive influences ! 
 
 Now when a sanctified soul is thus released, both 
 from its union to sinful flesh and blood, and from all 
 possible assaults of the powers of earth and hell, it 
 may be worth our enquiry, " Whether this release 
 be not sufficient of itself to render the work of 
 sanctification complete," and bring it to a state of 
 perfection, supposing still the ordinary concurrence 
 or influence of the sanctifying Spirit ? Or " whether 
 there must be an immediate, almighty and present 
 change wrought in the soul by a new and extra- 
 ordinary influence of the blessed Spirit at the very 
 moment of death, by which sanctification is at once 
 completed?" Which of these is true, I know not. 
 I confess this last has generally been the opinion of 
 our protestaht writers ; and perhaps it may be the 
 truth : but the Scripture is silent. 
 
 Who can tell therefore whether a holy soul, that 
 
316 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 hath received the divine seed of grace (which is 
 called the divine nature) and is regenerated, and 
 renewed, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, hath 
 not all its remaining sins and imperfections owing 
 to its bonds of sinful flesh and blood ? And 
 whether its compliance with so many temptations, 
 is not to be attributed to its close attachments to 
 corrupt animal nature and sensible things ? And 
 therefore whether this sanctified nature would not 
 become completely free from sin, when it is freed 
 from all the influence of a tempting body and a 
 ^tempting world ? Whether the divine bent and bias 
 that is given it by the spirit of God at first conver- 
 sion, and by which it maintains continual opposition 
 to sinful flesh, would not make its own way toward 
 perfection without new and extraordinary operations? 
 Whether this would not be sufficient to cause the 
 soul for ever to ascend naturally toward God in 
 desire, and love, and delight, when all clogs and 
 embarrassments are removed ? So a vessel filled 
 with upper air, and dragged down by some heavy 
 weioht to the bottom of the sea, labours and wrestles 
 with the uneasy burden, and hath a perpetual ten- 
 dency towards this upper region : but if the weight 
 be once taken off, it immediately of itself rises 
 through the water, and never ceases its motion till 
 it come to the surface. 
 
 I confess this is a nice speculation, and of doubtful 
 evidence ; though when St. Paul lays his sinful 
 compliances and captivity so much to the charge of 
 his flesh and members in the viith chapter to the 
 Romans, and in other places of his writings, one 
 would be ready to think St. Paul was of this 
 opinion. However, this we are sure of, that a 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 317 
 
 sanctified soul released from the body shall be 
 made free from every sin, and its absence from 
 flesh and the world have a large if not sufficient 
 influence to effect this freedom. 
 
 And if we should grant it that a soul just dis- 
 missed from this world is not perfectly sanctified 
 by the mere influence of this release ; yet this per- 
 fection is sufficiently secured by its dismission from 
 flesh ; for when absent from the body, it is present 
 with the Lord : and this leads me to the next par- 
 ticular, namely, 
 
 IV. At death the spirits of the just, released 
 from bodies, enter into another state, a different 
 world, where they have a thousand advantages for 
 improvement in knowledge, and advances in holiness 
 and joy, vastly beyond what any thing in this world 
 could furnish them with. 
 
 They see God, and are for ever with him, they 
 behold him face to face, as I have before explained 
 it, in a more immediate and intuitive manner ; and 
 doubtless such a sight fills the spirit with a clearer 
 and brighter idea of the nature and attributes of 
 God, than all the former lessons, it had learnt in the 
 books of nature and of Scripture could ever give it. 
 
 They see our Lord Jesus Christ, our glorified 
 Saviour, in such a way and manner as glorified 
 separate spirits can converse with spirits embodied ; 
 and one such view as this will perhaps lead us into 
 more intimate acquaintance with his human nature 
 and his united Godhead, than many years of con- 
 verse with him by all trie mediums of ordinances, 
 those divine glasses, wherein we see him darkly, 
 (as the apostle speaks) and whereby God and Christ 
 represent and manifest themselves to saints on earth. 
 
313 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 And as our knowledge shall receive immense and 
 surprising improvements by these new methods of 
 discovery, so I think it shall in due proportion ad 
 vance our holiness, or conformity to God the Father, 
 and his brightest image, Christ Jesus ; for we cannot 
 behold them in such a manner without a glorious 
 transformation into their likeness, as I have hinted 
 already. 
 
 When a soul, that hath a new nature given it by 
 sanctifying grace, is placed in the immediate view 
 and presence of God the most holy, it will ever be 
 growing into a greater degree of nearness and love ; 
 and it will be powerfully changed more and more 
 into the likeness of God himself, as a needle when 
 placed within the reach of a loadstone's attractive 
 power, ceases not its motion till it be joined in per- 
 fect union, and itself acquires the virtues of that 
 wonderful mineral. 
 
 Nor is it possible in heaven that we should ad- 
 vance in knowledge and holiness without an equal 
 improvement in felicity and joy. On earth indeed 
 we are told, he that will live godly, shall suffer per- 
 secution ; and he that increases knowledge, increases 
 sorrow, 2 Tim. hi. 12. and Eccles. i. 18. But as 
 heaven is high above the earth, so are the customs 
 and the blessings of that state superior to this ; for 
 there are no present sorrows to be known, nor any 
 future to be feared : and holiness has no enemy there. 
 All things round the saint, shall have a tendency to 
 promote his blessedness. 
 
 The spirit of a good man released from the body, 
 and ascending to heaven, is surrounded with thou- 
 sands, and ten thousands of blessed spirits of the 
 human and angelic order : when it gets within the 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 319 
 
 confines of the heavenly country, it sweetly and 
 insensibly acquires the genius and temper of the 
 inhabitants ; it breathes as it were, a new air, and 
 lives, and thinks, and acts just as they do. It 
 shines and burns with new degrees of knowledge, 
 zeal and love, and exults in the transporting com- 
 munications of the same joy. 
 
 How vastly shall our understandings be improved 
 by the kind narratives and instructions of the saints 
 that arrived at heaven before us, and by converse 
 with the ministering angels ? 
 
 You will say perhaps, that we shall have no need 
 of their teaching when we get to heaven, for we shall 
 be near to God himself, and receive all immediately 
 from him. 
 
 But hath the Scripture any where excluded the 
 assistance of our fellow-spirits ? God can teach 
 us here on earth immediately by his own Spirit, 
 without the use of books and letters, without the 
 help of prophets and ministers, men of like pas- 
 sions with ourselves ; and yet he chuses rather to 
 do it in an instrumental way, and makes his crea- 
 tures in the lower world the means of our instruc- 
 tion under the superior influence of his own Spirit : 
 and why may he not use the same methods to com- 
 municate knowledge to the spirits that newly arrive 
 at that upper world ? 
 
 There we shall see the patriarchs of the old 
 world, and prophets of the old dispensation, as well 
 as the apostles and evangelists of Christ and his 
 gospel. There we shall be conversant with those 
 blessed angels whom he has used as ministers of his 
 vengeance, or his mercy, to persons and churches, 
 families and nations : and they will not be unwilling 
 
320 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 to inform us of those great and surprising transac- 
 tions of God with men. 
 
 There we shall find a multitude of other eminent 
 saints before and after Christ. 
 
 Adam doubtless will take a peculiar pleasure in 
 acquainting all his happy posterity with the special 
 form and terms of the covenant of innocency ; he 
 shall tell us the nature of the tree of knowledge and 
 of life, and how fatally he fell, to the ruin of his 
 unborn offspring. Unhappy father, deriving iniquity 
 and death down to his children ! But with what 
 immense satisfaction and everlasting surprise he 
 views the second Adam, his Son and his Saviour, 
 and stands in adoration and transport while he be- 
 holds millions of his seed that he once ruined, now 
 raised to superior glories, above the promises of 
 the law of works, by the intervening influence of a 
 Mediator ? Enoch, the man that walked with God, 
 and Elijah, the great reformer, shall instruct us how 
 they were translated to heaven, and passed into a 
 blessed immortality without calling at the gates of 
 death. Noah will relate to his sons among the 
 blessed, what was the wickedness of the old world 
 before the flood, that provoked God their Maker 
 to drown them all ; he shall entertain us with the 
 wonders of the ark, and the covenant of the rain- 
 bow in all its glorious colours. Abraham, the 
 father of the faithful, and the friend of God, shall 
 talk over again with us his familiar converse with 
 God and angels in their frequent apparitions to him, 
 and shall tell us how much the promised seed trans- 
 cends all the poor low ideas he had of him in his 
 obscure age of prophecy. For we cannot suppose 
 that all intimate converse with our father Abraham 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 321 
 
 .shall be forbidden us, by any of the laws or manners 
 of that heavenly country, since heaven itself is de- 
 scribed by onr sitting down as at one table with 
 Abraham, and dwelling in his bosom, Matt. viii. 11. 
 and Luke xiv. 15. -and xvi. 23. 
 
 There St. Paul and Moses shall join together to 
 give us an account of the Jewish law, and read 
 wondrous and entertaining lectures on the types 
 and figures of that economy, and still lead our 
 thoughts to the glorious antitype with surprising 
 encomiums of the blessed Jesus. Paul shall unfold 
 to us the dark places of his own writings, better 
 than he himself once understood them ; and Moses 
 shall become an interpreter of his own law, who 
 knew so little of the mystery and beauty of it on 
 earth himself. 
 
 There we shall acquaint ourselvesrwith some of 
 the antient fathers of the Christian-church, and- the 
 martyrs, those dying champions of the faith, and 
 honours of the Christian name. These will recount 
 the various providences of God to the church in 
 their several ages, and shew the visions of St. John 
 in the Book of the Revelation, not in the morning 
 twilight of prophecy, but as in the light of noon, as 
 a public history, or as an evening rehearsal of the 
 transactions of the day. The witnesses themselves 
 shall tell us how they prophesied in sackcloth, and 
 were slain by the man of sin ; how they rose from 
 the dead in three days and an half, and how the 
 church was at last reformed from the Popish mys- 
 teries of iniquity and superstition. Cranmer and 
 Ridley, Calvin and Luther, and the rest of the pious 
 reformers, shall make known to us the labours and 
 sufferings of their age, and the wonders of pure 
 
 (14.) 2 s 
 
32-2 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 Christianity, rising as it Mere out of the grave, and 
 throwing off the chains, the darkness and defilements 
 of Antichrist: and those holy souls who lahoured 
 in the reformation of Great Britain, while they relate 
 the transactions of their day, shall perhaps enquire 
 and wonder why their successors put a stop to that 
 blessed work, and have made no further progress in 
 a hundred and fifty years. 
 
 Did one of the elders near the throne give notice 
 to the apostle John concerning the martyrs, Rev. vii. 
 14. These, are they which came out of great tribula- 
 tions, and have tvashed their robes, arid made them 
 white in the blood of the L.amb ; and shall we not 
 suppose that the happy spirits above tell one another 
 their victories over sin and temptation, and the powers 
 of this world ? Shall not the martyrs, who triumphed 
 in their own blood, and overcame Satan and Anti- 
 christ by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of 
 their testimony, shall they not make it known to the 
 inhabitants of the upper world, and tell it to the 
 honour of Christ, their captain and their king, how 
 they fought, and died, and conquered ? Methinks 
 1 hear these noble historians rehearsing their sacred 
 tragedy ? how they entertain a bright circle of listen- 
 ing angels and fellow-spirits with their own glorious 
 and dreadful story, dreadful H suffer, and glorious 
 to relate. 
 
 Shall it be objected here, that all the glorified 
 saints cannot be supposed to maintain immediate 
 discourse with those blessed antients ? Can those 
 aiitients be imagined to repeat the same stories 
 perpetually afresh, to entertain every stranger that 
 is newly arrived at heaven ? 
 
 1 answer : that since one single spirit dwelling hi 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 828 
 
 rlesh can communicate his thoughts immediately lo 
 five or six thousand hearers at once by his voice, 
 and to millions more successively by books and 
 writing, it is very unreasonable to suppose, that 
 spirits made perfect and glorified have not a power 
 of communicating their thoughts to many more 
 thousands by immediate converse ; and it is past 
 our reach to conceive what unknown methods may 
 be in use amongst them, to transmit their ideas and 
 narratives in a much swifter succession, than by 
 books and writings, through all the courts of heaven, 
 and to inform all the new comers, without putting 
 each happy spirit to the everlasting labour of a tire- 
 some repetition. 
 
 Though every saint in heaven should not be ad- 
 mitted to immediate and speedy converse with those 
 spirits of renown in past ages, yet doubtless those 
 glorious minds have communicated their narratives, 
 and the memoirs of their age, to thousands of that 
 blessed world already, and from them we may 
 receive a repetition of the same wonders with faith- 
 fulness and exact truth. History and chronology 
 are no precarious and uncertain sciences in that 
 country. 
 
 It is very probable indeed, that we shall have 
 more intimate nearness to, and more familiar com- 
 munion with those spirits that were of the same age 
 and place with ourselves, and of the same church 
 or family ; for we can more delightfully expatiate 
 in our converse with them about the same pro- 
 vidences and the same methods of grace, and 
 agreeably entertain and improve each other 
 with notices of the affairs of the upper and lower 
 worlds. 
 
324 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 Nor must we suppose sucn sort of historical con- 
 verse among the blessed spirits is merely designed 
 to fill the mind with new and strange ideas. This 
 pleasure, considered by itself, is not sacred enough 
 for the spirits of the just made perfect. There is 
 not a narrative in the world, but shall disclose some 
 wondrous instances of divine wisdom or mercy, 
 power or faithfulness, patience and forgiveness, or 
 Wrath and justice: the speaker shall feel the work- 
 ings with all proper reverence, zeal and love : and 
 every hearer shall be impressed with correspondent 
 affections, and join in adoration and holy wonder. 
 
 And while we speak of the means and advantages 
 that glorified spirits enjoy for their improvement in 
 all the parts of their felicity, surely we may expect 
 the greatest and the best assistances, even those 
 of the Holy Spirit, to render all these means more 
 effectual. Is he not promised to abide with us, to 
 be in us, and dwell with usjor ever? John xiv. 16, 
 17. Is he not represented as dwelling in the spirits 
 of the just made perfect, when it is said, the spirit 
 that dwelleth in them shall raise their mortal bodies 
 from the dead? Rom. viii. 11. May we not then 
 reasonably infer, that that glorious Spirit, who hafh 
 been our enlightener, our comforter, and our sane- 
 tifier on earth, will be our perpetual enlightener, our 
 eternal sanctifier, and our everlasting comforter ? 
 He that hath so wonderfully begun the divine wo**k 
 in us, and laid foundations of joy in knowledge and 
 holiness, will he not finish and perfect his own 
 work, and add the top-stone to crown the heavenly 
 building ? 
 
 O blessed state of spirits discharged from the 
 prison of flesh and this world ! This wicked world, 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 325 
 
 where satan the evil spirit has so wide a range, and 
 so poisonous an influence, and where sinful men 
 swarm on every side, and bear the largest sway ! 
 What divine advantages are you possessed of, for 
 the improvement of all your sacred excellencies and 
 joys ! When we can raise our thoughts a little, and 
 survey your privileges, we feel somewhat of an in- 
 ward wish to dwell among you, and send a breathing 
 meditation, or a glance of warm desire towards your 
 world and your society. We poor prisoner-spirits, 
 when we hear such tidings from the country at 
 which you are arrived, we stretch our wings a little, 
 and are ready to wish for the flight. But God our 
 sovereign must appoint the hour ; he sees that we 
 are not yet refined enough. Keep our souls, O 
 Father, in this erect posture, looking, reaching and 
 longing for the celestial world, till thou hast com- 
 pletely prepared us for the promised glory, and then 
 give us the joyful word of dismission. 
 
 Thus I have endeavoured to make it appear on 
 what accounts a dismission from the body is both 
 the season when, and the means whereby the spirits 
 of the just arrive at this perfection. Their state of 
 trial is ended at death, and therefore all incon- 
 veniences and imperfections must cease by divine 
 appointment : by death the soul is released from all 
 the troublesome and tempting influences of flesh 1 
 and blood ; it is delivered from this sinful world, 
 it is got beyond the reach of satan the tempter and 
 the tormentor ; and it is surrounded with a thousand 
 advantages for improvement in knowledge, holiness 
 and joy. 
 
326 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 SECT. VI. 
 
 Remarks on the foregoing Discourse. 
 
 Remark I. Are the spirits of the just made 
 perfect at the death of the body ? then we may he 
 assured that they neither die nor sleep ; for sleep 
 and death are both inconsistent with this state of 
 perfection which I have described. 
 
 The dead saints are not lost nor extinct. They 
 are*not perished out of God's world, though they 
 are gone from ours. They are no more in the 
 world that is enlightened by the sun and moon, 
 and the glimmering stars : but they themselves shine 
 gloriously, like stars of different magnitude, in the 
 world where there is no sun, nor is there any need 
 of lite moon to slune in it, for the glory of God en- 
 lightens it, and the Lamb is the everlasting light 
 thereof, Rev. xxi. 23. They are lost from earth, 
 but they are found in heaven. They are dead to us 
 at present, but they are alive to God their Father, 
 and to Jesus their Saviour; they are alive to the 
 holy angels, and to all their fellow saints in that 
 upper world. 
 
 If there had been any such thing as a soul sleep- 
 ino- or dying, our Saviour would never have argued 
 thus with the Sadducees, Luke xx. 37, 38. nor have 
 proved the doctrine of the resurrection from the 
 doctrine of the separate state of souls : it is as if he 
 had said, " Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are dead 
 long ago : but God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, 
 and Jacob still :" now God is not the God of the 
 dead, but the God of the living; therefore the souls 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 327 
 
 of those patriarchs are yet alive, for they all live to 
 God in the separate state, and they shall appear in 
 their complete human nature, soul and body, at the 
 resurrection. This is the language and the force of 
 our Saviour's -argument, and therefore I must believe 
 the soul of Abraham is alive now. 
 
 When Jesus promises the penitent thief upon the 
 cross, Luke xxiii. 43. This day shall thou be with 
 me in paradise ; can we persuade ourselves that he 
 intended no more than that the thief should be with 
 him in the grave, or in a state of indolence and in- 
 sensibility ? Does he not assure him in these words, 
 that there is a state of happiness for spirits dismissed 
 from the body, whither the soul of our Lord Jesus 
 was going, and where the dying peniteut should find 
 him ? * 
 
 So when the infidel J s stoned Stephen the first 
 martyr, Acts vii. 59. while he expressed his faith 
 and hope in these words, Lord Jesus receive my 
 spirit ; was this spirit of his to be laid asleep till 
 the resurrection ? Can we suppose the dying saint 
 would have made such a request upon so lethargic 
 a principle, and in the view of such a stupid state ? 
 No, surely ; for he expected, and desired, and 
 prayed to be received to dwell where Christ is, 
 and to behold that glory which he kad a glimpse of 
 in the agonies of death. 
 
 Would the apostle Paul have been so willing to 
 be absent from the body, where he did much service 
 for his Saviour, if he had not a joyful view of being 
 present with the Lord ? as he expresses it, 2 Cor. v. 
 8. What doth he mean by this blessed language of 
 presence with the Lord, if his soul was to lie aslee.p 
 in a senseless and unactive state till the second 
 
328 THE HAPPINESS OP 
 
 coming of Jesus? Or would he have told the Phil- 
 lippians, chap. i. ver. 23. that he had a desire to 
 depart, and to be ivith Christ, which is far better, 
 if he had hoped no advantage for his spirit by it, 
 but a mere stupid indolence and rest in the silent 
 grave ? 
 
 Besides, we are told of rebellious spirits that are 
 in prison, 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20. and of Sodom and Go- 
 morrah suffering the vengeance of eternal fire, Jude 
 ver. 7. Whether this be material fire, or merely a 
 metaphor to express torment, is not necessary to 
 enquire here : but surely we can never imagine that 
 the justice of God has provided the prison of hell 
 and fiery torments for the souls of the wicked, 
 separate from bodies, and yet that the mercy and 
 goodness of God has provided no heaven of hap- 
 piness for the spirits of those that have loved, 
 honoured and obeyed him all the days they dwelt 
 in the flesh. There is then, there is certainly a state 
 of happiness prepared for holy souls immediately 
 after death. 
 
 When we think of our pious friends departed, our 
 foolish imagination is too ready to indulge and im- 
 prove our sorrow. We sit solitary in the parlour 
 or the chamber, we miss them there, and we cry, 
 " They are lost." We retire melancholy to the 
 closet and bewail a lost father, or a lost mother, 
 or perhaps a nearer and dearer relative. We miss 
 them in our daily conversation, we miss them in all 
 their friendly offices, and their endearing sensible 
 characters, and we are ready to say again, " Alas ! 
 they are lost," This is the language of flesh and 
 blood, of sense and fancy. Come, let our faith 
 teach us to think and speak of them under a more 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 329 
 
 cheerful and a juster representation : they are not 
 utterly lost, for they are present with Christ and 
 with God. They are departed our world, where all 
 things are imperfect, to those upper regions where 
 light and perfection dwell. They have left their 
 offices and stations here among us, but they are 
 employed in a far diviner manner, and have new 
 stations and nobler offices on high. Their places 
 oh earth indeed know them no more, but their 
 places in heaven know them well, even those 
 glorious mansions that were prepared for them from 
 the foundation of the world. Their place is empty 
 in the earthly sanctuary, arid on the days of solemn 
 assembly ; but they appear above in the heavenly 
 Jerusalem as fair pillars and ornaments in the 
 temple of God on high, and shall for ever dwell 
 with him there. 
 
 It is a very natural enquiry now, " But where are 
 these places of blessed spirits ? What part of the 
 creation is it, in which they have their residence ?" 
 Is it above or below the sun ? Is their habitation 
 in any of the planetary or starry worlds ? Or are 
 they fled beyond them all ? Where is the proper 
 pla.ce of their presence ? 
 
 Let me propose a brief answer to these curious 
 questions, in a few propositions. 
 
 1. The chief properties of spirits are knowledge 
 and activity ; and they are said to be present there, 
 where they have an immediate perception of any 
 thing, and where they lay out their immediate ac- 
 tivity or influence. So our souls are said to be 
 present with our bodies, because they have imme- 
 diate consciousness or knowledge of what relates 
 
 (14.) 2 t 
 
330 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 to the body, and they move it, and act upon it, 01 
 influence it, in an immediate manner. 
 
 2. God the infinite Spirit, has an immediate and 
 universal presence ; that is, he is immediately con- 
 scious of, and acquainted with every thing that 
 passeth in all the known and unknown parts of the 
 creation, and by his preserving and governing power 
 manages all things. Wheresoever he displays his 
 glory to separate spirits, that is heaven ; and where 
 he exerts his vengeance, that is hell. 
 
 3. Finite spirits have not such an immediate and 
 universal presence. Their knowledge and their ac- 
 tivity are confined to certain parts of the creation : 
 and wheresoever they are, if they are under the 
 immediate influence of divine glory, they are in 
 heaven ; if of his vengeance, they are in hell. 
 
 4. They are usually represented as having some 
 relation to a particular place or places ; because 
 while we dwell in flesh and blood, we know not 
 how to conceive of their presence so well any other 
 way : and therefore they may be described in Scrip- 
 ture or in common discourse, as being in heaven, 
 and above the heavens, and in the third heaven, 
 and as coming down to earth, &c. according as they 
 are supposed to put forth any actions there, or to 
 have any immediate cognisance of things that are 
 done in those places ; for the chief notion we have 
 of the presence of spirits, is their immediate con- 
 sciousness and their immediate agency. 
 
 5. But if they are provided with any subtle ethe- 
 rial bodies (which are called vehicles) in and by 
 which they act as soon as they leave flesh and 
 blood, then they may properly be said to reside in 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 3.3! 
 
 those places where their vehicles are, even as our 
 souls at present are said to be in a room, or a 
 closet, or a field, because our bodies are there, in 
 and by which they act. 
 
 6. There must be some place where the glorified 
 body of Christ is, and the souls of departed 
 saints are, in some sense, with him. There Enoch 
 and Elijah are in their immortal bodies, and the other 
 saints who rose at the resurrection of Christ. They 
 may be (for ought we know) in or among some 
 of the planets, or amongst the stars ; though the 
 distance of the stars is so prodigious and amazing, 
 according to the exactest calculations of the new 
 philosophy, that if the motion of a spirit or glorified 
 body were no swifter than that of a cannon bullet, 
 they would not get so far as jthe stars in a thou- 
 sand ages : nor would the journey of so swift a 
 traveller to any of the planets (except the moon) 
 cost less than the labour of several years. 
 
 7. These things are so puzzling to our reason, 
 so confound our imagination, and so far transcend 
 the reach of our present faculties to enquire and de- 
 termine, that it is sufficient for us to know and be- 
 lieve, that " the spirits of the just made perfect 
 have an existence under the blissful influences of 
 the grace and glory of God." And though we 
 freely speak of them, and the scripture leads us to 
 conceive of them as dwelling in a world of light, 
 and in some special place of magnificence and 
 apartments of glory, or as moving from one place to 
 another ; yet perhaps it is to be understood chiefly 
 in condescension to the weakness of our present 
 capacities, or in relation to vehicles to which they 
 may be united. But our ignorance in these matters 
 
332 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 f ? hall be no hindrance to our arrival at heaven, if 
 we tread the paths of faith and holiness, though we 
 know not in what part of the creation it lies. 
 
 I proceed to the second remark. 
 
 Remark II. If all the spirits of the just that de- 
 part from this world are made perfect, then there 
 is much better company above than there is below. 
 The society in heaven is much more agreeable 
 than the best society on ear.th. 
 
 Here we meet with a multitude of sinners ; they 
 are ready to mingle in all the affairs of life, and 
 sometimes hypocrites join with us in the sacred or- 
 dinances of the sanctuary. The apostle himself 
 hath told us, that in the civil concerns of this life 
 we cannot avoid them ; for if we keep no company 
 with sinners, we must have nothing to do in this 
 world ; we must needs go out of it, 1 Cor. v. 10» 
 But in the world above there are nothing but saints ; 
 no inhabitant there but what is holy. There are 
 no persons there that will tempt or defile us, or 
 lead us astray from the paths of purity and peace. 
 Holiness of the Lord is inscribed on every soul 
 there ; nor is there one Canaanite in that upper 
 house to the Lord of hosts, Zech. xiv. 21. 
 
 But this is not all. For there are many of the 
 saints themselves here on earth that make but very 
 indifferent companions. Some of them are shame- 
 fully ignorant, imprudent and foolish ; and we have 
 much ado to bear with their folly. Some of them 
 are morose and contentious, captious and peevish, 
 envious and censorious, and ready to take offence 
 on the slightest occasions ; a look or a smile placed 
 wrong shall disoblige them, a mistaken word shall 
 affront them for a mouth, and it is very hard work 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 333 
 
 to humour and please them : or we ourselves perhaps 
 are foolish and imprudent, we are peevish and re- 
 senting, and our fellow-christians have as much to 
 do to bear with us or to please us. There are 
 some persons concerning whom we have reason to 
 hope, that their hearts in the main are right with 
 God, but either by the iniquity of their animal na- 
 tures, or the power of their temptations, they look' 
 so like the men of this world, that it is hard to 
 distinguish them, and their society is dangerous, or 
 at least very unprofitable and undesirable. Some 
 of us fall into gross mistakes, and lead our friends 
 into error, and hand in hand we forsake the truth. 
 Some of us are melancholy, and sit in darkness ; 
 then we spread a gloom and heaviness over all our 
 conversation, and banish all the jctys of earth and 
 heaven : or at best (it may be) and in our sprightly 
 days we fill up all the visiting hour with trifles 
 and impertinences, and there is little of heavenly 
 and divine- conversation among us. Poor low 
 grovelling subjects furnish our tongues and entertain 
 our ears, because we are so very imperfect here 
 on earth, in knowledge, in holiness, or in divine 
 
 joy. 
 
 But what a glorious difference is there in the 
 society above, where we may be secure from all 
 mistake and falsehood, from all impertinence and 
 folly in the longest discourse or conference? for 
 eveiy spirit there is so perfect in knowledge, as to 
 be free from error, and has so divine a turn of mind, 
 that nothing relishes but what is holy and heavenly. 
 No quarrels, no complaints are found there to im- 
 bitter our converse, to diminish the pleasure of socie- 
 ty, or to draw the heart away from God. 
 
334 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 If we would know what the society of heaven 
 is, let us renew the memory of the wisest and holiest, 
 the kindest and the best companions that we were 
 ever acquainted with here on earth ; let us recollect 
 the most pleasing hours that we ever enjoyed in 
 their society ; let us divest them of all their mistakes 
 and weaknesses, of all their sins and imperfections*; 
 and then by faith and hope let us divest ourselves 
 of all our own guilt and follies too: let us fancy 
 ourselves engaged with them in delightful discourse 
 <%n the most divine and most affecting subjects, and 
 ouV hearts mutually raising each other near to God, 
 and communicating mutual joys : this is the state of 
 the blessed, this is the conversation of heaven, this, 
 and more than this, shall be our entertainment when 
 we arrive at those happy regions. 
 
 This thought would very naturally lead me to. the 
 mention of our honoured and departed friend, but 
 I withhold myself a little, and must detain your 
 expectation till I have made a remark or two 
 more. 
 
 Remark TIL Are the spirits of the just, who are 
 departed from earth made perfect in heaven ? then 
 they are not the proper subjects for our perpetual 
 sorrows and endless complaints. Let us moderate 
 our grief therefore for that very providence that 
 has fixed them in perfect holiness and joy. 
 
 We lament their abscence, and our loss indeed 
 is great ; but the spirit of christian friendship should 
 teach us to rejoice in their exaltation. Is it no plea- 
 sure to think of them as released from all the bonds 
 of infirm nature, from the pains of mortality, and 
 the disquietudes of a sinful world ? Is it not bet- 
 ter to lift our eyes upward, and view a parent or 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 335 
 
 a beloved friend adorned with perfect grace and 
 complete in glory, exulting in the fulness of joy near 
 the throne of God, than to behold him labouring 
 under the tiresome disorders of old age, groaning 
 under the anguish and torment of acute distempers, 
 and striving with the troublesome attendants of this 
 sinful and painful state ? Do we profess fondness 
 and affection for those that are gone, and shall we' 
 not please ourselves a little in their happiness, or at 
 least abate our mourning ? Doth not St. Paul tell 
 the Corinthians, this is what we tvish, even your per- 
 fection ? 2 Cor. xiii. 9. and should not saints in the 
 lower world, take some satisfaction, when a fellow- 
 saint is arrived at the summit of his own wishes, 
 even perfect holiness and joy on high ? 
 
 But I correct myself here : nature must have its 
 way, and be indulged a little ; let it express its sen- 
 sible pain at the loss of such endearments. A long 
 separation from those who are so near akin to us 
 in flesh and blood, will touch the heart in a painful 
 place, and awaken the tenderest springs of sorrow. 
 The sluices must be allowed to be held open a little ; 
 nature seems to demand it as a debt to love, and 
 grace does not utterly forbid it. When Lazarus 
 died, Jesus groaned and wept, John xi. 33, 35. 
 
 Yet let not sorrow triumph and reign, and like a 
 flood, break over all its bounds ; rather give the stream 
 of it a little diversion into a better channel. Come, let 
 us take the advice which our blessed Saviour gives 
 to the daughters of Jerusalem, who attended him 
 to his cross with tears, Luke xxiii. 28. Weep not 
 for me, but if ye must weep, do it for yourselves and 
 your children ; because you are still left in the val- 
 hy of sin and sorrow: while the saints departed 
 
336 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 , are arrived at the land of peace, and theii feet stand 
 upon the mountains of paradise. 
 
 Could the voice of those blessed spirits made per- 
 fect reach our ears, we should hear them speak in 
 the language of their Lord, " Weep not for us, but 
 for yourselves ; you are still encompassed with temp- 
 tations and difficulties, we have surmounted them 
 all : you are wrestling with many errors, and en 
 tangled in dark and noisy controversies : we are 
 perfect in knowledge, and see divine mysteries in 
 a*divine light: you are labouring in the race;, we 
 are crowned, and have received the prize : you are 
 still striving in the field of battle, and we well re- 
 member the toilsome and painful conflict ; we pity 
 you, and call you rather to weep for yourselves than 
 for us ; we have finished the war through divine 
 grace, and are secure in the city of triumph : you 
 are yet travelling through the valley of tears, we 
 are refreshing ourselves in the gardens of pleasure, 
 and on hills of everlasting gladness. Hold on with 
 courage, and faith, and patience ; there are mansions 
 of joy prepared for you also, and we wait your hap- 
 py arrival." 
 
 Remark IV. Are the spirits of just men in hea- 
 ven made perfect, in the same excellencies and pri- 
 vileges which they possesed on earth ? then " if 
 our curiosity or our love, has a mind to know what 
 are the circumstances of our pious friends departed, 
 or how they are employed above, let us review what 
 they were here below, and how they employed them- 
 selves when they were with us;" for, as I told you, 
 in this life we are trained up for the life of glory : 
 we shall then be advanced to a glorious and trans- 
 cendent degree of the same graces ; and there will 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 337 
 
 be something in the future stale of rewards answer- 
 able and correspondent to the present state of labour 
 and trial. 
 
 This thought necessarily calls our meditations 
 backward a little, to take a short survey of some 
 peculiar characters of our excellent friend departed, 
 that we may learn to rejoice in the present perfection 
 of his graces and glories. 
 
 SECT. VII. 
 
 The Character of the Deceased. 
 
 When I name Sir John Hartopp, all that knew 
 him will agree that I name a gentleman, a scholar, 
 and a Christian : and neither of these characters, in''' 
 the best and most valuable sense of them, could 
 forsake him at his entrance into heaven. 
 
 He shone with eminence among the persons of 
 birth and title* on earth ; while his obliging deport- 
 ment and his affable temper rendered him easy of 
 access to all his inferiors, and made him the delight 
 of all his friends. Though he knew what was due 
 to his quality in this world, yet he affected none of 
 the grandeurs of life, but daily practised condescen- 
 sion and love, and secured the respect of all without 
 assuming a superior air. 
 
 * His grandfather, Sir Edward Hartopp, was created a Baronet 
 by King James I. 1619, which was but a few years after the first 
 institution of that order. 
 
 (15.) 2 u 
 
33U THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 M Then surely he carried this temper with him to 
 the upper world, where gentleness and goodness 
 reign in the highest perfection ; and doubtless he 
 practises now all the same graces of conversation 
 among the blessed spirits there, but in a far superior 
 manner, according to the unknown laws and cus- 
 toms of that region of light and love." 
 
 He had a taste for universal learning : and in- 
 genious arts were his delight from his youth. He 
 pursued knowledge in various forms, and was 
 acquainted with many parts of human science. 
 Mathematical speculations and practices were a 
 favourite study with him in his younger years ; and 
 even to his old age, he maintained his acquaintance 
 with the motions of the heavenly bodies, and light 
 and shade whereby time is measured. 
 
 " And may we not suppose that there are enter- 
 tainments amongst the works of God on high to 
 feast the spirit of such a genius ? May they not in 
 that upper region look down and survey the various 
 contrivances of divine wisdom, which created all 
 things in these lower worlds in number, weight, and 
 measure ? May not our exalted friend give glory 
 there to his Maker, in the contemplation of the same 
 heavenly bodies, though he dwells in the region 
 where night and shadows are never known, and 
 above the need or use of sun-beams ?" 
 
 But the book of God was his chief study, and his 
 divinest delight. His Bible lay before him night 
 and day : and he was well acquainted with the 
 writers that explained it best. He was desirous of 
 seeing what the Spirit of God said to men in the 
 original languages. For this end he commenced 
 some acquaintance with Hebrew when he was 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 339 
 
 more than fifty years old : and that he might be 
 capable of judging of the true sense of any text in 
 the JNevv Testament, he kept his youthful knowledge 
 of the Greek language in some measure even to the 
 period of his life. 
 
 I " But earthly languages are of little use in heaven. 
 There are too many defects and ambiguities in them 
 to express the bright, the complete, and the distinct 
 ideas of separate spirits. We may allow our learned 
 friend therefore to be divested of these when he dropt 
 mortality. Now he is out of the body, and caught 
 up to dwell in paradise, where St. Paul made here- 
 tofore a short visit, 2 Cor. xii. 2, 4. he hears and he 
 speaks those unspeakable words, it is not possible 
 for a mortal tongue to utter. The things of heaven 
 are not to be expressed in any foreign language." 
 I Among the various themes of Christian contem- 
 plation, he took peculiar pleasure in the doctrines of 
 grace, in the display of the glories of the person of 
 Christ, God in our nature, and the wondrous work 
 of redemption by his cross. He adored him as his 
 Lord and his God : and while he trusted in his 
 righteousness as the great Mediator, and beheld 
 him as his eruciiied Saviour, he was ever zealous 
 to maintain the honour due to his divine nature and 
 majesty. 
 
 • " And we may be sure this is a study in which 
 he is still engaged, and he spends the days of his 
 eternity in the pleasurable contemplation of his 
 glorified Redeemer, and the sacred mysteries of 
 his cross, and his throne, which things the angels 
 desire to pry into." 
 
 $ His practice in life was agreeable to his Christian 
 principles, &r he knew that the grace of God, that 
 
340 1 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 brings salvation to men, teaches them to deny all un- 
 godliness, and to live sober, righteous, and religious 
 lives ; that in all things they may adorn the doctrine 
 of God their Saviour. 
 
 ; " Now that this part of his character is continued 
 and exalted in the region of the blessed spirits, is 
 too evident to need any amplification or proof; for 
 holiness in every part of it is made perfect there, and 
 all under the sweet constraint of love." 
 
 His conversation was pious and learned, ingenious 
 and instructive : he was " inquisitive into the affairs 
 of the learned world, the progress of arts and 
 sciences, the concerns of the nation, and the interest 
 of the church of Christ. And upon all occasions 
 was as ready to communicate as he was to enquire." 
 What he knew of the things of God or man, he re- 
 solved not to know them only for himself, but for 
 the benefit of all that had the honour of his ac- 
 quaintance. There are many of his friends that 
 will join with me to confess, how often we have 
 departed from his company refreshed and advanced 
 in some useful knowledge. And I cannot but 
 reckon it among the blessings of heaven, when I 
 review those five years of pleasure and improvement, 
 which I spent in his family in my younger part of 
 life ; and I found much instruction myself, where 
 I was called to be an instructor. 
 
 " Nor can I think such enquiries and such com- 
 munications as are suitable to the affairs of the 
 upper world, are unpractised among the spirits of 
 just men made perfect there ; for man is a sociable 
 creature, and enjoys communion with his fellow- 
 saints there, as well as with his Maker nnd his 
 Saviour. Nor can the spirit of our bonour.vd and 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 341 
 
 departed friend be a stranger to the pleasures of 
 society amongst his fellow-spirits in those blessed 
 mansions." 
 
 His zeal for the welfare of his country, and of 
 the church of Christ in it, carried him out to the 
 most expensive and toilsome services in his younger 
 and his middle age. He employed his time, his 
 spirits, his interest, and his riches for the defence of 
 this poor nation, when forty years ago it was in the 
 utmost danger of popery and ruin.* 
 
 * And doubtless the spirits of the just in heaven 
 are not utterly unacquainted with the affairs of the 
 kingdom of Christ on earth. He rejoices and will 
 rejoice among his fellow-saints when happy tidings 
 of the militant church, or of the religious interests 
 of Great Britain, are brought to ffie upper world by 
 ministering angels. He waits there for the full ac- 
 complishment of all the promises of Christ to his 
 church, when it shall be freed from sins and sor- 
 rows, from persecutions and all mixtures of super- 
 stition, and shall be presented to the Father a 
 glorious church without spot or wrinkle, in perfect 
 beauty and joy." 
 
 His doors were ever open, and his carriage always 
 friendly and courteous to the ministers of the gospel, 
 though they were distinguished among themselves 
 by names of different parties ; for he loved all that 
 loved our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. 
 
 M//*//#*//# 
 
 * He was three times chosen Representative in Parliament for 
 his county of Leicestershire, in those years when a sacred zeal for 
 liberty and religion strove hard to bring in the Bill of Exclusion, 
 to prevent the Duke of York (afterwards King James II.); from 
 inheriting the crown of England. 
 
342 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 He chose indeed to bear a part in constant pub- 
 lic worship with the Protestant Dissenters, for he 
 thought their practice more agre :>le to the rules 
 of the gospel : he joined himself in communion with 
 one of their churches, which was under the pastoral 
 care of the Rev. Dr. John Owen, where he con- 
 tinued an honourable member under successive 
 pastors till the day of his death. Nor was he 
 ashamed to own and support that despised interest, 
 nor to frequent those assemblies, when the spirit of 
 persecution raged highest, in the days of King 
 Charles and King James the Second. He was a 
 present refuge for the oppressed, and the special 
 providence of God secured him and his friends from 
 the fury of the oppressor. He was always a devout 
 and diligent attendant on public ordinances, till the 
 last years of his life, when the infirmities of age 
 growing upon him, confined him to his private 
 retirements. 
 
 " But if age confined him, death gave him a re- 
 lease. He is exalted now to the church in heaven, 
 and has taken his place in that glorious assembly, 
 where he worships among them before the throne :"' 
 there he has no need to relieve his memory by the 
 swiftness of his pen, which was his perpetual prac- 
 tice in the church on earth, and by which means he 
 often entertained his family in the evening worship 
 on the Lord's day with excellent discourses ; some 
 of which he copied from the lips of some of the 
 greatest preachers of the last age : " There his 
 unbodied spirit is able to sustain the sublimest 
 raptures of devotion, which run through the wor- 
 shippers in that heavenly state ; though here on 
 earth I have sometimes seen the pious pleasure too 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 343 
 
 «. 
 
 strong for him ; and while he has been reading the 
 things of God to his household, the devotion of his 
 heart has broken through his eyes, has interrupted his 
 voice, and commanded a sacred pause and silence." 
 
 He enjoyed an intimate friendship with that great 
 and venerable man Dr. Owen, and this was mutually 
 cultivated with zeal and delight on both* sides, till 
 death divided them. The world has already been 
 acquainted, that it is to the pious industry of Sir 
 John Hartopp, that we are indebted for many of 
 those Sermons and Discourses of the Doctor, which 
 have been lately published in Folio. A long and 
 familiar acquaintance enabled him also to furnish 
 many Memoirs, or matters of fact, towards the brief 
 account of the Doctor's life, which is prefixed to 
 that volume, though it was drawn up in the pre- 
 sent form with various enlargements, by another 
 hand. 
 
 " Now can we suppose two such souls to have 
 been so happily intimate on earth, and may we not 
 imagine they have found each other among the 
 brighter spirits on high ? May we not indulge 6ur- 
 selves to believe, that our late honoured friend hath 
 been congratulated upon his arrival by that holy 
 man that assisted to direct and lead him thither ?" 
 i Nor is it improbable that he has found other happy 
 souls there, who were numbered among his pious 
 acquaintance on earth. Shall I mention that ex- 
 cellent man Sir Thomas Abney, who was his late 
 forerunner to heaven, and had not finished two 
 months there before Sir John Hartopp's arrival ? 
 Happy spirits, may I congratulate your meeting 
 in the celestial regions ! But the world and the 
 churches mourn your absence: and the Protestant 
 
344 THE HAPPINESS OF 
 
 Dissenters lament the loss of two of their fairest 
 ornaments and honours. 
 
 " And is there not the same reason to believe, 
 that our departed friend hath by this time renewed 
 his sacred endearments with those kindred spirits 
 that were once related to him in some of the nearest 
 bonds of flesh and blood ? There they rejoice to- 
 gether in unknown satisfaction, they wait and long 
 for the arrival of those whom they left behind, and 
 for whose immortal welfare they had a solicitous 
 concern in the state of their mortality." 
 ! ^his thought opens my way to address the pos- 
 terity, the kindred, and the Mends of the deceased, 
 in the fifth remark. 
 
 SECT. VIII. 
 
 An Address to the Friends and Relatives of the 
 Deceased 
 
 Remark V. If the perfection of blessed spirits 
 above consists in a glorious increase of those virtues 
 and graces which were begun below, " let us see to 
 it then, that those graces and those virtues are begun 
 in us here, or they will never be perfected in us 
 hereafter." If our spirits have nothing of that divine 
 righteousness wrought in them on earth, we can 
 never be admitted into the company of the spirits 
 of the righteous made perfect in heaven. 
 
 It is an old saying among divines, but it is a most 
 rational and a certain truth, that grace is glory begun, 
 and glory is but grace perfected. The saints above 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 345 
 
 have the same divine nature, the same sanctified 
 inclinations, and are engaged in many of the same 
 sacred employments with the saints below, but all 
 in a superior degree, and in a more transcendent 
 manner. 
 
 As for you, my friends, who have the happiness 
 and honour to be descended from such parents, or 
 to be nearly related to such saints, you have seen 
 the virtues and graces, the exemplary character and 
 piety of them who are gone before you ; you have 
 had many bright and shining examples in your 
 family ; you are the children of the blessed of the 
 Lord, and may you for ever be blessed with them ! 
 And in order to it, see that you are made like them 
 now, that ye may be followers of Jhem, who through 
 faith and patience inherit the promises. 
 I This is a proper season to examine yourselves, 
 and call your souls to account in such language as 
 this : " My father, my mother, my honoured and 
 superior kindred, are gone to glory : their graces 
 are perfected ; and are not mine begun ? What, 
 have I no evidences for heaven yet ready ? no 
 exercises of faith, of love, of repentance, of true 
 holiness ? Are they arrived at heaven, and am I 
 not yet travelling in the same road ? 
 
 They were convinced of sin, and the danger of 
 eternal death, so as to give themselves no rest till 
 they found salvation. Have I ever been convinced 
 of the sin of my nature, and the guilt of my life ? 
 Have I beheld myself exposed to the anger of God, 
 and in danger of everlasting misery, so as to cry out 
 with myself, what shall I do to be saved ? 
 
 They have seen Jesus the Son of God, the all- 
 sufficient Saviour, and have committed their souls 
 
 (15. 2 x 
 
346 THE HAPPINESS .OF 
 
 by humble faith into his hands, to obtain pardon for 
 the sake of his atonement, to be justified through 
 his righteousness, to be renewed and made holy by 
 the grace of his Spirit, and to be preserved to eternal 
 glory. Now what have I seen of the excellency, 
 or all-sufficiency, or necessity of Christ as a media- 
 tor? Have I been persuaded to trust in him for 
 my acceptance with God, to give my soul up to 
 him as my guide, guard, and ruler, to be formed 
 after his image, and to venture all my immortal 
 concerns with him to be brought safe to heaven ? 
 Have I ever received him as my Lord and my 
 Saviour, under those condescending characters and 
 offices which he sustains for a sinner's salvation ? , 
 
 They have believed in him while he was unseen, 
 and they loved him, though they saw him not; they 
 rejoiced in him as their all, and they knew not how 
 to live without him. How is it with my soul in this 
 respect ? Do I love Jesus the Lord ? Is he the 
 desire of my heart, and the delight of my life ? 
 
 Though they were kept by the grace of God from 
 the pollutions of the world, and upheld their un- 
 blemished character to the last, yet they found sin 
 to 'be their most dangerous enemy; they have felt 
 it bitter and painful to their souls, and they long 
 groaned under it as their daily burden. What is 
 my grief? what is my chief sorrow? Do I groan 
 in this tabernacle being burdened, because of this 
 inward enemy ? And do I long to be rid of it ? 
 are my sinful affections like a pain at my heart, and 
 do the workings of sin within me awaken mv con- 
 tinual repentance ? 
 
 They maintained a sacred tenderness of con- 
 science, and were afraid to indulge themselves iu 
 
SEPARATE SPIRITS. 347 
 
 that company, in that practice, and in those liberties 
 of" life which have often proved a dangerous snare 
 to souls. Now can I appeal to God, who sees'my 
 heart, that I am cautious and watchful against every 
 snare ? that I stand afar off from every temptation, 
 and abstain from all appearance of evil ? 
 
 They took sweet pleasure in retirement, m prayer, 
 and other holy exercises : this was the refreshment 
 of their hearts, and the throne of grace was their 
 refuge under every distress and difficulty. Let me 
 ask my heart, what is my pleasure, my inward 
 delight ? Do I find a sweet relish in devotion ? 
 Arid when outward troubles perplex me, do I make 
 the mercy-seat my speedy and constant refuge ? 
 
 They lived upon their Bible, they counted the 
 gospel their treasure, and lhe-*promises and the 
 words of God written there, were more valuable 
 to them than all their outward riches. But what is 
 my life ? what is my treasure ? what is my hope ? 
 Do I count heaven and the gospel my chief inherit- 
 ance ? Do I converse much with my Bi!;Ie, and 
 find food and support there ? Do I look at things 
 unseen and eternal, and feed and rest upon the 
 promised glories of another world, when I meet 
 with disappointments here ? 
 
 They had a large share of Christian experiences, 
 a rich stock of divine and spiritual observations, by 
 much converse with God and with their own souls. 
 What have I got of this kind for the support of my 
 soul ? or are all these strange things to me ?" 
 
 Believe me, my dear and honoured friends, these 
 are matters of infinite importance ; I am sure you 
 will think so one day ; and I trust and persuade 
 myself you think them so now. I cannot give 
 
348 THE HAPPINESS OF &c. 
 
 myself leave to imagine that you put these thoughts 
 far from you. Some of you have made it appear 
 that they lie next your heart, and that your souls 
 are deeply engaged in the ways of God and good- 
 ness. O that every one of you would give the same 
 comfort and joy to your friends ! Be not satisfied 
 with a mere negative holiness, an unspotted character 
 in the eyes of the world ; but let the world know 
 that you dare be religious, and profess universal 
 piety in a degenerate age. Let those that honour 
 the^ memory of your parents, and love your souls, 
 rejoice in your public Christianity. Let them know, 
 that there are the foundations of heavenly glory laid 
 within you all, and the blessed work begun on earth, 
 that shall surely be made perfect among the spirits 
 of the just in heaven. 
 
 I And methinks I would not have you contented 
 with the lowest seat there ; but stir up yourselves 
 to a most unwearied pursuit of holiness in the sub- 
 limer degree of it. And thus labouring in the Chris* 
 tiaii race, contend for some of the brighter prizes, 
 some of the richer crowns of glory. Be not satisfied 
 to sit at a great distance below your parents de- 
 parted, even in the heavenly country : but strive 
 with a holy ambition that you may come'near them, 
 that the whole family together may arrive at some 
 superior degrees of blessedness. And O may divine 
 grace grant me the pleasure to be a witness to your 
 exalted stations, and to worship and rejoice amongst 
 you there ! Amen. 
 
THE LIFE 
 
 OP 
 
 &*♦ £$ttfarfL 
 
 MNHE work to which this memoir is prefixed, 
 » has been generally attributed to Dr. Thomas 
 Sherlock, who was successively Bishop of Bangor, 
 Salisbury, and London. When any work has at- 
 tained that celebrity which has been bestowed on 
 the Trial of the Witnesses of the resurrection of 
 Jesus, which, as Dr. Leland says, " has been very 
 justly admired for the polite and uncommon turn, 
 as well as the judicious way of treating the subject," 
 it begets a desire in the mind of the reader, to obtain 
 all the information he can respecting the writer. 
 To gratify this desire, is the object of the writer in 
 giving the following account. 
 
 Our author was the son of Dr. William Sherlock, 
 for some time master of the Temple, and also a 
 celebrated divine of the Established Church, during 
 the convulsive period of the reign of James II. At 
 the accession of William and Mary to the throne, 
 he refused to take the oaths of allegiance to King 
 William's Government. He was not long however 
 so consciencious, as a circumstance took place which 
 led him to alter his opinion. In these sentiments 
 and conduct, his son, the subject of this memoir, is 
 
cccl. THE LTFE OF 
 
 said' to have greatly resembled his father, which has 
 exposed the history of them both to some pointed 
 satire. 
 
 The father's scruples to take the oaths, led him 
 not only to object himself, but he advised a great 
 number of the city clergy to follow his example : 
 but Mrs. Sherlock had no such difficulties. The 
 government gave him time for consideration,. which 
 aided by her entreaties, formed a revolution in his 
 mind, and he at length complied. An arch book- 
 seller seeing him soon afterwards handing his wife 
 along St. Paul's Church yard, said, " There goes 
 Dr. Sherlock, with his reasons for taking the oaths 
 at his fingers ends." His apostacy procured him 
 the hatred of the whole Jacobite party, and afforded 
 new matter for the wit of his adversary, South. As 
 William Sherlock did not submit till King William 
 had firmly established his throne, by the battle of 
 the Boyne ; so his son Thomas, is said to have 
 owed his conversion from the principles of the Non- 
 jurors to the battle of Preston, which confirmed the 
 throne to George I. On the Sunday succeeding to 
 the battle, he preached a loyal revolution sermon ; 
 which occasioned the benchers of the Temple to 
 remark that, " it was a pity it had not been de- 
 livered at least the Sunday before." Of this double 
 conversion the following epigram was thought to be 
 characteristic : 
 
 As Sherlock the elder,* with his jure divine, 
 
 Did not comply till the battle of Boync : 
 
 So Sherlock the younger still made it a question, 
 
 Which side he would take, till the battle of Preston.t 
 
 >* See the life of this Divine in Vol. 7th of British Biography. 
 t. Noble's continuation of Granger, Vol. 1, p. 91. 
 
DR. SHERLOCK. cccli. 
 
 Bishop Sherlock was born in London in 1678, 
 and at an early age was sent to Eton School. Here 
 he laid the foundation of that classical elegance by 
 which his compositions are distinguished. About 
 the year 1693, he was removed to Cambridge, and 
 admitted to Catherine Hall. Here he took his 
 degree in Arts, and soon after he had attained tq 
 the canonical age, entered into priest's orders ; 
 having previously been elected into a fellowship pi 
 the college. He was admitted to the mastership of 
 the Temple on the resignation of his father in 1704. 
 This preferment was of such high importance, that 
 the choice of so young a man was to many, matter 
 of great offence ; but the prejudices entertained 
 against him on this account, wej'e effectually re- 
 moved by a short trial of his abilities. Being duly 
 sensible of the dignity of his office, he was extremely 
 solicitous of improving his talents, which he did with 
 such success, that in the course of a few years, he 
 became one of the most celebrated preachers of the 
 age.* 
 
 He had not been long in this station, before he 
 took the degree of Doctor of Divinity ; and in the 
 year 1707, he married Miss Judith Fountaine, a 
 very amiable lady, descended from a good family 
 in Yorkshire. In 1714, he succeeded Sir William 
 Daws in the mastership of Catherine Hall, Cam- 
 bridge, where he had received his education. 
 Whilst he held this place, he was promoted to 
 the office of Vice Chancellor of the University, 
 which he discharged with the utmost attention and 
 
 * Funeral Sermon preached by Dr. Nicholls. Annual Regist« v 
 for 1672. 
 
ccclii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 assiduity. It is said that while he continued in the 
 University, he discovered on all occasions, not only 
 very superior abilities, with deep and extensive 
 learning;, but also great wisdom, policy, and talents 
 for governing ; in allusion to which part of his 
 character, Dr. Bendy, during his squabbles at 
 Cambridge, gave him the nick name of Cardinal 
 Alberoni* 
 
 In 1716, Dr. Sherlock obtained the Deanery of 
 Chichester, and soon after his promotion, he first 
 appeared as an author, being at the head of the 
 famous Hoadlein controversy, which for a consider- 
 able time agitated the divines of the Established 
 Church. The occasion of this controversy was a 
 sermon preached before King George I. March 
 31st, 1717, by Dr. Hoadly, Bishop of Bangor, and 
 afterwards published under the title of The ?iature 
 of the Kingdom, or the Church of Christ. Some 
 of the principles maintained in this sermon, gave 
 great offence to many of the High Church Clergy, 
 and a representation was drawn up by a committee 
 of the lower house of convocation. But before it 
 was so approved as to be made the act of that part 
 of the representation of the church, to be by them 
 presented to the upper house of convocation, the 
 assembly was prorogued by order of the King, nor 
 would his majesty permit them to sit again till all 
 resentment had wholly subsided against Dr. Hoadly. 
 
 The interference of his majesty, led the enemies 
 of Dr. Hoadly, to charge him with having fled to 
 this refuge, from fearing the consequences of an 
 
 * Dr. Charles Moss's charge to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry 
 of Colchester. 17G4. 
 
DR. SHERLOCK. cccliii. 
 
 investigation of iiis principles. This he positively 
 denied, and declared that it was prorogued without 
 his solicitation, or his having any knowledge of the 
 design; " but the King thought proper,*' says the 
 Bishop, " out of a sincere regard, as I verily believe, 
 to the interest of our constitution in Church and 
 State, to put a stop to the sitting of the convoca- 
 tion." By this event, the principles of Dr. Hoadly 
 were brought fairly to the bar of Scripture and 
 reason, uninfluenced by human authority ; the trial 
 was removed from the decision of a majority of 
 voices to that of argument only, " and certainly 
 (says Dr. Hoadly) no Christian or Protestant can 
 justly and consistently find fault with this."* 
 
 It was on this subject that Dr. Sherlock stept for- 
 ward as the champion of the principles of the Non- 
 jurors, and printed many tracts against Dr. Hoadly. 
 The principal of these, was one entitled, A vindica- 
 tion of the Corporation and Test Acts, in answer to 
 the Bishop of Bangor's reasons far the repeat of 
 them ; to which was added, a Second Part, con- 
 cerning the Religion of Oaths, 1718, 8vo. This 
 piece, which Bishop Hoadly allowed to be the most 
 plausible, and ingenious defence that, in his opinion, 
 had ever been published, of excluding men from 
 their acknowledged civil rights, upon the account 
 t>f their differences in religion, or in the circum- 
 stances of religion ; drew an answer from that cele- 
 brated Prelate, to which Dr. Sherlock replied in a 
 small pamphlet entitled, The true meaning and in- 
 tention of the Corporation and Test Acts explained, 
 fa. It is with pleasure we add, that in his latter 
 
 * Preface to Dr. lioadly's answer to the Representation, &Cj, 
 (15.) 2 Y 
 
cccliv. THE LIFE OF 
 
 years, he did not at all . approve of these writings 
 against Dr. Hoadly, as he told a friend, that " he 
 was a young man when he wrote them ;" and he 
 would never have them collected into a volume.* 
 
 Upon the appearance of Mr. Collins's celebrated 
 discourse of The grounds and reasons of the Chris- 
 tian Religion, in the year 1724, Dr. Sherlock, 
 though he did not directly enter into the contro- 
 versy, took an opportunity of delivering his senti- 
 ments upon the subject in six discourses, delivered 
 at % the Temple Church, in April and May 1724. 
 These discourses were published the next year, 
 under the title of The use and intent of Prophecy 
 in the several ages of the World ; and he afterwards 
 corrected and enlarged them in several successive 
 editions. 
 
 \ The fourth edition of this work, corrected and 
 enlarged, was published in 1774, to which was 
 added four Dissertations, 1. Upon the authority of 
 the second Epistle of St. Peter. 2. The sense of 
 the antients before Christ, upon the circumstances 
 and consequences of the Fall. 3. The Blessing of 
 Jiidah, Gen. 49. 4. Christ's entry into Jerusalem. 
 In 1749, our author (at that time Bishop of London) 
 published an Appendix to the second dissertation* 
 being a farther enquiry into the Mosaic accowit of 
 the Fall; to which he prefixed a short advertise- 
 ment, acquainting his reader, that " it was drawn 
 up some years before, and was intended as an 
 examination of the objections made to the history 
 of the Fall, by the Author of the Literal Scheme of 
 Prophecy considered; but that the author being 
 
 <* JJio'Tauh, Britan. 
 
DR, SHERLOCK. .vciv. 
 
 *!ead, he had now considered the objections not as 
 his, but as common to all who call in question, or 
 are offended with, the history of the Fall as it stands 
 recorded by Moses." 
 
 ■ i In the year 1728, Dr. Sherlock was promoted to 
 the Bishopric of Bangor ; in which he succeeded 
 Dr. Hoadly, as he did also in the See of Salisbury 
 in 1734 ; in both which stations he made so dis- 
 tinguished a figure, that upon the death of Arch- 
 bishop Potter in the year 1747, the Archbishoprick 
 of Canterbury was offered to him ; but being then in 
 an ill state of health, he thought himself unqualified 
 to fill that high station. The next year however he 
 was so much recovered, that he accepted a transla- 
 tion to the See of London, vacant by the death of 
 Bishop Gibson. i 
 
 I* Notwithstanding his advancement to such high 
 dignity, Bishop Sherlock continued to hold the 
 Mastership of the Temple, (where he was much 
 beloved and esteemed) till the year 1753, and when 
 his resignation was accepted by his Majesty, he 
 addressed a letter to the Treasurers and Masters 
 of the Bench, gratefully acknowledging his sense of 
 the many favours they had shewn him. This letter 
 is preserved in the Biographia Britannica. 
 i- It was soon after he was created Bishop of Bangor, 
 that Dr. Sherlock wrote the Trial of the Witnesses, 
 which has already passed through many editions. 
 The occasion of its being written we proceed briefly 
 to relate. ^ 
 
 I In the work entitled a Discourse of the grounds 
 and reasons of the Christian Religion, Mr. Collins, 
 the author, had endeavoured to prove that all the 
 Old Testament prophecies were not to be understood 
 
ccclvi. THE LIFE OF 
 
 literally but figuratively. Under the pretence of 
 acting the part of a Moderator in this control ersy, 
 Mr. Woolston endeavoured to allegorize away the 
 miracles of our Saviour, as Mr. Collins had done 
 the prophecies. This he first attempted in a pam- 
 phlet entitled, A Moderator between an Infidel and 
 an Apostate ; and in two Supplements to it ; and 
 afterwards more largely in six discourses on the 
 miracles of our Saviour, which were successively 
 published at different times, in the years 1727, 1728, 
 1729. The design of these discourses was to shew, 
 that the accounts of the great facts recorded in the 
 Gospels, are to be understood wholly in a mystical 
 or allegorical sense ; and that taken in the literal 
 and historical sense, they are false, absurd, and 
 fictitious. This attempt he carried on with greater 
 rudeness and insolence than any of the deistical 
 writers who went before him ; for in the objections 
 which, he- makes, in the person of a Jewish Rabbi, 
 against the evangelical story of our Lord's resurrec- 
 tion, he declares it to be a complication of absurdi- 
 ties, inconsistencies, and contradictions. He insi- 
 nuates, that the guards set by the Roman governor, 
 at the desire of the chief priests, to watch the body 
 of Jesus, suffered themselves to be bribed or intoxi- 
 cated by the disciples ; in which he is more quick 
 sighted than the chief priests and Pharisees, whom 
 it more nearly concerned, who, it is plain, suspected 
 no such thing ; in which case, instead of excusing, 
 thev would have endeavoured to have cot them 
 severely punished. But what he seems to lay the 
 principal stress upon is, a supposed covenant be- 
 tween the chief priests and the disciples of Jesus, 
 that the seal with which the stone of the sepulchre 
 
DR. SHERLbCK. ccclvii. 
 
 was sealed, should not be broken till the three days 
 were entirely past; and that therefore the rolling 
 away the stone from the sepulchre, and breaking 
 the seal before the three days were ended, was 
 a breach of that covenant, and a proof of an im- 
 posture. 
 
 After Mr. Woolston had published his Moderator, 
 a prosecution was set on foot against him by the 
 Bishop of London, for having* written against Chris- 
 tianity, for which he was tried and found guilty in 
 the court of Kings' bench, before the Right Honour- 
 able Sir Robert Raymoud, Knt. Lord Chief Justice. 
 Our author, Bishop Sherlock, adopted a more Scrip- 
 tural and more successful plan to prevent the circu- 
 lation of his works, and of his opinions, by bringing 
 his arguments to the bar of Scripture and reason, 
 and in a fair and legal trial of the witnesses of the 
 resurrection of Jesus, fully exposed all the illiberal 
 abuse and unfounded aspersions which he had 
 heaped on their characters. 
 
 In Mr. Woolston's defence of his discourse, which 
 was dedicated to the Queen, he takes notice of this 
 work, and calls it " a considerable treatise, and an 
 ingenious piece, with which he was much pleased." 
 The sarcastic manner however in which he affects 
 to treat the work, proves that it was so considerable, 
 that he could not solidly answer it, and also that 
 however much he admired its ingenuity, he was not 
 greatly pleased with its arguments. 
 
 For three or four years after the translation of our 
 Prelate to the See of London, he was, notwith- 
 standing his age and infirmities, able to apply himself 
 to business ; and he made one general visitation of 
 his Diocese in person. But he was soon aft*r 
 
ecclviii. THE LIFE OF 
 
 afflicted with a dangerous disorder, from which he 
 recovered with difficulty, and with almost a total 
 loss of the use of his limbs ; and his speech failing 
 him soon after, he was obliged to desist from the 
 exercise of his function, and was even deprived of 
 the advantages of a free conversation, as he could 
 not be understood except by those who were con- 
 stantly about him. His patience and submission to 
 the will of God during his affliction, are thus repre- 
 sented by one of his friends ; " Had the same case 
 occurred in the reisrn of antient stoicism, what 
 triumphs would have been sung, what honour paid 
 to the great masters and schools of science ? Why 
 should its true praise and honour be withheld from 
 that true Philosophy, which cometh from above, in 
 which no man was more deeply practised than our 
 truly Christian Prelate, whose happy state of mind, 
 was the pure and genuine effect of it." 
 
 During his affliction, the powers of his mind con- 
 tinued in their full vigour ; and under this weak 
 state of body in which he continued for some years, 
 he kept the administration of all affairs in his own 
 hands. In this situation likewise, he revised, cor- 
 rected, and published in four volumes octavo, his 
 Discourses preached at the Temple Church, which 
 are in many respects some of the most exquisite 
 and masterly productions of the kind that are to be 
 found m the English, or perhaps in any other lan- 
 guage. The first volume was published in 1754, 
 and was followed by the rest soon after. He died 
 the 18th of January, 1761, in the 84th year of his 
 age, and was interred at Fulham, in a vault made 
 for that purpose ; where likewise a monument is 
 erected to his memory, with an inscription drawn 
 
BR. SHERLOCK. ccclix. 
 
 up by Dr. Nicholls, who succeeded him in the 
 Mastership of the Temple. 
 
 Bishop Sherlock was a man of the most acute 
 parts, and his ambition is said to have been equal 
 to his capacity ; insomuch, that he would have 
 thought it an indignity to have been the second in 
 any character in which he chose to appear. His 
 extraordinary abilities, indeed, were universally ac- 
 knowledged ; and his learning was very extensive. 
 One who was intimately acquainted with our Pre- 
 late, says, " God had given him a great and an 
 understanding mind, a quick comprehension, and a 
 solid judgment." These advantages of nature he 
 improved by much industry and application, and in 
 the early part of his life, he read and digested well 
 the antient orators both Greek, and Latin, the 
 philosophers, poets, and orators, from which he 
 acquired that correct and elegant stile which ap- 
 pears in all his compositions. His knowledge in 
 Divinity was obtained from the study of the most 
 rational writers of the church both antient and 
 modern ; and he was particularly fond of comparing 
 Scripture with Scripture ; and especially of illustrat- 
 ing the writings of the Apostles, which he thought 
 wanted to be more studied, and of which we have 
 some specimens in his own discourses. His piety 
 was constant and exemplary, and breathed the true 
 spirit of the gospel. His zeal was warm and fer- 
 vent, in explaining the great doctrines and duties of 
 Christianity, and in maintaining it, and establishing 
 it upon the most solid foundations. His munifi- 
 cence was large and diffusive. The instances of 
 his public character both in his life time, and at 
 his death, were great and 1 like himself. He gave, 
 
ccclx. THE LIFE OF 
 
 we are told, large sums of money to the corporation 
 of the sons of the clergy, to several of the hospitals, 
 and to the society for propagating- the Gospel in 
 foreign parts. The private flow of his bounty to 
 many individuals, was constant and regular, and 
 upon all just occasions, he was ready to stretch 
 forth his hand to the needy and afflicted. He was 
 indeed a person of" great candour and humanity, 
 had a tender feeling for distress, and was easily 
 touched with the feeling of others. No one was 
 euer more happy in domestic life, and no man could 
 shew greater gentleness, good-nature, and affection 
 to all around him."* ' 
 
 It is said that in the latter part of his life he was 
 far from orthodox on some controverted points ; 
 nor did he at all approve of the Athanasian Creed. 
 It was supposed he died worth 150,000 Pounds ! 
 He left his Widow ,3000 pounds a year for her life, 
 and 10,000 to dispose of. His lady died in 176'4, 
 a«;ed 77 years, and was interred in the same vault 
 with her husband. - , 
 
 Besides the works we have mentioned, Dr. Sher- 
 lock was the author of an excellent Pastoral Letter 
 in the year 1750, addressed to the Clergy and the 
 inhabitants of London and Westminster, upon oc- 
 casion of the earthquakes. Of this letter, it is 
 said, there were printed in quarto 5000, in octavo 
 2000, iu duodecimo 3000, besides pirated editions, 
 of which not less than 50,000, were supposed to 
 be sold.* 
 
 r, rr + J ^rr *-*+++++■* rj *■****+** r , ,,^,,,, 
 
 * Dr. Nicholl's Sermon. 
 "NoorthoHck's Historical and Classical Diet. 
 
BR. SHERLOCK. ccclxi. 
 
 The public have also been presented since the 
 Bishop's death, with another volume of his dis- 
 courses, preached on several important occasions, 
 and separately printed by their author. In which, 
 says the Editor, " the judicious reader will discover 
 the same energy of sentiment, and purity of diction, 
 the same pathetic and convincing address to the 
 heart, which so eminently distinguishes the rest of 
 this Prelate's discourses." 
 
 (16.) 2 z 
 
THE TRIAL 
 
 OF THE WITNESSES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SU£tt£?tctfott of €i>ttet. 
 
 WE were, not long since, some gentlemen of 
 the inns of court together, each to other so 
 well known, that no man's presence was a confine- 
 ment to any other, from speaking his mind on any 
 subject that happened to arise in conversation. The 
 meeting was without design, and the discourse, as 
 in like cases, various. Among other things we fell 
 upon the subject of Woolston's trial and conviction, 
 which had happened some few days before : that led 
 to a debate how the law stands in such cases ; what 
 punishment it inflicts ; and, in general, whether the 
 law ought at all to interpose in controversies of this 
 kind. We were not agreed in those points. One, 
 who maintained the favourable side to Woolston, 
 discovered a great liking and approbation of his 
 discourses against the miracles of Christ, and seemed 
 to think his arguments unanswerable. To which 
 another replied, I wonder that one of your abilities, 
 and bred to the profession of the law, which teaches 
 
364 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 us to consider the nature of evidence, and its proper 
 weight, can be of that opinion ; I am' sure you would 
 be unwilling to determine a property of five shillings 
 upon such evidence, as you now think material 
 trough to overthrow the miracles of Christ. 
 
 It may easily be imagined that this opened a door 
 to much dispute, and determined the conversation for 
 the remainder of the evening to this subject. The 
 dispute ran through almost all the particulars men- 
 tioned in Woolston's pieces ; but the thread of it 
 Was broken by several digressions, and the pursuit 
 of things which were brought accidentally into the 
 discourse. At length one of the company said 
 pleasantly, Gentlemen, you do not argue like 
 lawyers; if I were judge in this cause, I would 
 hold you better to the point. The company took 
 the hint, and cried, they should be glad to have 
 the cause re-heard, and him to be the judge. The 
 gentlemen who had engaged with spirit in a dispute 
 which arose accidentally, seemed very unwilling to 
 be drawn into a formal controversy : and especially 
 the gentleman who argued against Woolston, thought 
 the matter grew too serious for him, and excused 
 himself from undertaking a controversy in religion, 
 of all others the most momentous : but he was told, 
 that the argument should be confined merely to the 
 nature of the evidence, and that might be considered 
 without entering into any such controversy as he 
 would avoid ; and to bring the matter within bounds, 
 and under one view, the evidence of Christ's Resur- 
 rection, and the exceptions taken to it, should be 
 the only subject of the conference. With much 
 persuasion, he suffered himself to be persuaded, 
 and promised to give the company, and their new- 
 
THE WITNESSES. 365 
 
 made judge, a meeting that day fortnight. The 
 judge and the rest of the company were for bring- 
 ing on the cause a week sooner ; but the counsel 
 for Woolston took the matter up, and said, Con- 
 sider, sir, the gentleman is not to argue out of 
 Littleton, Plowden, or Coke, authors to him well 
 known ; but he must have his authorities from 
 Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John ; and a fortnight 
 is time little enough of all conscience to gain a 
 familiarity with a new acquaintance ; and, turning 
 to the gentleman, he said, I will call upon you be- 
 fore the fortnight is out, to see how reverend an 
 appearance you make behind Hammond on the 
 New Testament, a Concordance on one hand, and 
 a folio Bible with references on. the other. You 
 shall be welcome, sir, replied the gentleman, and 
 perhaps you may find some company more to your 
 own taste ; he is but a poor counsel, who studies 
 on one side of the question only ; and therefore I 
 will have your friends Woolston, Tindal, and Collins, 
 to entertain you when you do me the favour of the 
 visit. Upon this we parted in good humour, and 
 all pleased with the appointment made, except the 
 two gentlemen who were to provide the entertain- 
 ment. 
 
THE SECOND DAY.* 
 
 The company met at the time appointed : but it 
 happened in this, as in like cases it often does, that 
 some friends to some of the company, who were 
 not of the party the first day, had got notice of the 
 meeting ; and the gentlemen who were to debate 
 tke question, found they had a more numerous 
 audience than they expected or desired. He 
 especially, who was to maintain the evidence of 
 the resurrection, began to excuse the necessity he 
 was under of disappointing their expectation, al- 
 ledging that he was not prepared ; and he had 
 persisted in excusing himself, but that the strangers, 
 who perceived what the case was, offered to with- 
 draw, which the gentleman would by no means 
 consent to : they insisting to go, he said, he would 
 much rather submit himself to their candour, unpre- 
 pared as he was, than be guilty of so much rude- 
 ness, as to force them to leave the company. Upon 
 which one of the company smiling, said, It happens 
 luckily that our number is increased ; when we were 
 last together, we appointed a judge, but we quite 
 forgot a jury ; and now, I think we are good men 
 and true, sufficient to make one. This thought was 
 pursued in several allusions to legal proceedings, 
 which created some mirth, and had this good effect, 
 that it dispersed the solemn air which the mutual 
 compliments upon the difficulty before-mentioned 
 had introduced, and restored the ease and good 
 humour natural to the conversation of gentlemen. 
 
THE TRIAL, &c. 367 
 
 The judge perceiving the disposition of the com- 
 pany, thought it a proper time to begin, and called 
 out, Gentlemen of the jury, take your places ;' and 
 immediately seated himself at the upper end of the 
 table : the company sat round him, and the judge 
 called upon the counsel for Woolston to begin. 
 
 Mr. A. Counsel for Woolston, addressing him- 
 self to the judge, said, 
 
 May it please your lordship ; I conceive the 
 gentlemen on the other side ought to begin, and 
 lay his evidence, which he intends to maintain be- 
 fore the court ; till that is done, it is to no purpose 
 for me to object. I may perhaps object to some- 
 thing which he will not admit to be any part of his 
 evidence, and therefore, I apprehend, the evidence 
 ought in the first place to be distinctly stated. 
 
 Judge. Mr. B. What say you to that ? 
 
 Mr. B. Counsel Ion the ot/ier side : 
 
 My lord, if the evidence I am to maintain, were 
 to support any new claim, if I were to gain any 
 thing which I am not already possessed of, the 
 gentleman would be in the right ; but the evidence 
 is old, and is matter of record, and I have been 
 long in possession of all that I claim under it. If 
 the gentleman has any thing to say to dispossess 
 me, let him produce it ; otherwise I have no reason 
 to bring my own title into question. And this I 
 take to be the known method of proceeding in such 
 cases ; no man is obliged to produce his title to his 
 possession ; it is sufficient if he maintains it when 
 it is called in question. 
 
 Mr. A. Surely, my lord, the gentleman mistakes 
 the case ; I can never admit myself to be out of 
 possession of my understanding and reason ; and 
 
3G8 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 since he would put me out of this possession, V id 
 compel me to admit things incredible, in virtue of 
 the evidence he maintains, he ought to set forth his 
 claim, or leave the world to be directed by common 
 sense. 
 
 Judge. Sir, you say right ; upon supposition that 
 the truth of the Christian religion were the point in 
 judgment. In that case it would be necessary to 
 produce the evidence for the Christian religion ; but 
 the matter now before the court is, whether the ob- 
 jections produced by Mr. Woolston, are of weight 
 to* overthrow the evidence of Christ's resurrection. 
 You sec then the evidence of the resurrection is 
 supposed to be what it is on both sides, and (he 
 thing immediately in judgment, is the value of the 
 objections, and therefore they must be set forth. 
 The court will be bound to take notice of the 
 evidence, which is admitted as & fact on both parts. 
 Go on, Mr. A. 
 
 \ Mr. A. My lord, I submit to the direction of 
 the court. I cannot but observe that the gentle- 
 man on the other side, unwilling as he seems to be 
 to state his evidence, did not forget to lay in his 
 claim to prescription, which is, perhaps in truth, 
 though he has too much skill to own it, the very 
 strength of his cause. I do allow that the gentle- 
 man maintains nothing but what his father and 
 grandfather, and his ancestors, beyond time of 
 man's memory, maintained before him : I allow 
 too, that prescription in many cases makes a good 
 title ; but it must always be with this condition, that 
 the thing is capable of being prescribed for : and I 
 insist, that the prescription cannot run against reason 
 and common sense. Customs raav be pleaded by 
 
THE WITNESSES. 369 
 
 prescription.; but if upon showing the custom, any 
 thing unreasonable appears ki it, the prescription 
 fails ; for length of time works nothing towards the 
 establishing any thing that could never have a legal 
 commencement. And if this objection will over- 
 throw all prescriptions for customs ; the mischief of 
 which extends perhaps to one poor village only, and 
 affects them in no greater a concern, than their right 
 of common upon a ragged mountain ; shall it not 
 much more prevail, when the interest of mankind 
 is concerned, and in no less a point than his hap- 
 piness in this 'life, and in all his hopes for futurity ? 
 Besides, if prescription must be allowed in this case, 
 how will you deal with it in others ? What will you 
 say to the antient Persians, and their fire-altars? 
 Nay, what to the Turks, who have been long enough 
 in possession of their faith to plead , 
 
 Mr. B. I beg pardon for interrupting the gentle- 
 man. But it is to save hirn trouble. He is going 
 into his favourite common-place, and has brought 
 us from Persia to Turkey already ; and if he goes 
 on, I know we must follow him round the globe. 
 To save us from this long journey, I will wave all 
 advantage from the antiquity of the Resurrection, 
 and the general reception the belief of it has found 
 in the world ; and am content to consider it as a 
 fact which happened but last year, and was never 
 heard of either by the gentleman's grandfather, or 
 by mine. 
 
 Mr. A. 1 should not have taken quite so long a 
 journey as the gentleman imagines, nor, indeed, need 
 any man go so far from home to find instances to the. 
 purpose I was upon. But since this advantage is 
 quitted, I am as willing to spare my pains as the 
 
 (16.) 3 A 
 
370 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 gentleman is desirous that I should. And yet I 
 suspect some art even in this concession, fair and 
 candid as it seems to be. For I am persuaded that 
 one reason, perhaps the main reason, why men. be- 
 lieve this History of Jesus is, that they cannot 
 conceive that any one should attempt, much less 
 succeed in such an attempt as this, upon the foun- 
 dation of mere human cunning and policy ; and it is 
 worth the while to go round the globe as the gen- 
 tleman expresses himself, to see various instances 
 of the like kind, in order to remove this prejudice. 
 But I stand corrected, and will go directly to the 
 point now in judgment. 
 
 Mi\ B. My lord, the gentleman, in justification 
 of his first argument, has entered upon another of a 
 very different kind. I think he is sensible of it, and 
 seeming to yield up one of his popular topics, is 
 indeed artfully getting rid of another ; which has 
 made a very good figure in many late writings, but 
 will not bear in any place, where he who maintains 
 it may be asked questions. The mere antiquity of 
 the Resurrection I gave up ; for if the evidence was 
 not good at first, it cannot be good now. The gen- 
 tleman is willing, he says, to spare us his history of 
 antient errors, and intimates, that upon this account 
 he passes over many instances of frauds that were 
 like in circumstances to the case before us. By no 
 means, my lord, let them be passed over. I would 
 not have the main strength of his cause betrayed in 
 complaisance to me.~ Nothing can be more material 
 than to shew a fraud of this kind, that prevailed 
 universally in the world. Christ Jesus declared 
 himself a prophet, and put the proof of his mission 
 on this, that he should die openly and publicly, and 
 
THE WITNESSES. 371 
 
 rise again the third day. This surely was the hardest 
 plot in the world to be managed ; and if there be one 
 instance of this kind, or in any degree like it, by all 
 means let it be produced. 
 
 Mr. A. My lord, there has hardly been an in- 
 stance of a false religion in the world, but it has 
 also afforded a like instance to this before us. Have 
 they not all pretended to inspiration ? Upon what 
 foot did Pythagoras, Numa, and others, set up ? 
 Did they not all converse with the gods, and pre- 
 tend to deliver oracles r 
 
 Mr. B. This only shows that revelation is by 
 the common consent of mankind the very best 
 foundation of religion, and therefore every impostor 
 pretends to it. But is a man's hiding himself in a 
 cave for some years, and then coming out into the 
 world, to be compared to a man's dying and rismo- 
 to life again ? So far from it, that you and I and 
 every man may do the one, but no man can do the 
 other. 
 
 Mr. A. Sir, I suppose it will be allowed to be 
 as great a thing to go to heaven and converse with 
 angels, and with God, and to come down to the 
 earth again, as it is to die and rise again. Now this 
 very thing Mahomet pretended to do, and all his 
 disciples believe it : can you deny this fact ? , ' 
 
 i 3Ir. B. Deny it, Sir ! No. But tell us who 
 went with Mahomet ? Who were his witnesses ? I 
 expect before we have done to hear of the guards 
 set over the sepulchre of Christ, and the seal of the 
 stone : What guard watched Mahomet in his goin°- 
 and returning ? What seals and credentials had 
 he ? He himself pretends to none. His followers 
 pretend to nothing but his own word. We are now 
 
372 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 to consider the evidence of Christ's Resurrection, 
 and yon think to parallel it by producing a case, for 
 which no one ever pretended there was any evidence. 
 You have Mahomet's word ; and no man ever told 
 a lie, but you had his word for the truth of what he 
 said ; and therefore yon need not go round the. globe 
 to find such instances as these. But this story, it is 
 said, has gained great credit, and is received by 
 many nations. Very well : and how was it re- 
 ceived ? Was not every man converted to this faith 
 with the sword at his throat ? In our case, every 
 witness to the Resurrection, and every believer of 
 it, was hourly exposed to death. In the other case, 
 whoever refused to believe, died ; or what was as 
 bad, lived a wretched conquered slave. And will 
 you pretend these cases to be alike? *One case 
 indeed there was within our own memory, which 
 in some circumstances came near to the case now 
 before us. The French prophets put the credit of 
 their mission upon the resurrection of Dr. Emmes, 
 and gave public notice of it. If the gentleman 
 pleases to make use of this instance, it is at his 
 service. 
 
 Mr. A. The instance of Dr. Emmes is so far to 
 the purpose, that it shows to what lengths enthusiasm 
 will carry men. And why might not the same thing 
 happen at Jerusalem which happened but a few 
 years ago in our own country ? Matthew, and 
 John, and the rest of them, managed that affair 
 with more dexterity than the French prophets ; so 
 that the Resurrection of Jesus gained credit in the 
 world, and the French prophets sunk under their 
 ridiculous pretensions. That is all the difference. 
 
 Mr. B. Is it so? And a very wide difference 1 , 
 
THE WITNESSES. 373 
 
 I promise yoit. In one case every thing happened 
 that was proper to convince the world of the truth 
 of the Resurrection ; in the other, the event manifest- 
 ed the ciieat ; and upon the view of these circum- 
 stances, you think it sufficient to say, with great 
 coolness, that is all the difference. Why, what 
 difference do you expect between truth and false- 
 hood ? What distinction — 
 
 fr Judge. Gentlemen, you forget that you are in a 
 court, and are falling* into dialogue. Courts do not 
 allow of chit-chat. Look ye, the evidence of the 
 Resurrection of Jesus is before the court, recorded 
 by Matthew, Mark, and others. You must take it 
 as it is ; you can neither make it better nor worse. 
 These witnesses are accused of giving false evidence. 
 Come to the point ; and let us hear what you have 
 to offer, to prove the accusation. 
 
 Mr. B. Is it your meaning, Sir, that the Objec- 
 tions should be stated and argued altogether, and 
 that the answer should be to the whole at once ? 
 Or would you have the objections argued singly,, 
 and answered separately by themselves. 
 i Judge. I think this court may dispense with the 
 strict forms of legat proceedings, and therefore I 
 leave this to the choice of the jury. 
 
 After the. jury had consulted together, the 
 Foremcm rose up. 
 
 / The Foreman/ of the Jury. We desire to hear 
 the objections argued and answered separately. 
 We shall be better able to form a judgment, by 
 hearing the answer while the objection is fresh in 
 our minds. 
 
374 ' THE TRIAL OF 
 
 Judge. Gentlemen, you hear the opinion of the 
 Jury. Go on. 
 
 Mr. A. I am now to disclose to you a scene, of 
 all others the most surprising. ' The Resurrection 
 has been long talked of, and, to the amazement of 
 every one who can think freely, has been believed 
 through all ages of the church.' This general and 
 constant belief creates in most minds a presump- 
 tion that it was founded on good evidence. In 
 other cases the evidence supports the credit of the 
 history ; but here the evidence itself is presumed 
 ohly upon the credit which the story has gained. 
 I wish the books dispersed against Jesus by the 
 antient Jews had not been lost, for they would have 
 given us a clear insight into this contrivance ; but 
 it is happy for us, that the very account given by 
 the pretended witnesses of this fact is sufficient, to 
 destroy the credit of it , 
 
 The Resurrection was not a thing contrived for 
 its own sake. No ! It was undertaken to support 
 great views, and for the sake of great consequences 
 that were to attend it. It will be necessary there- 
 fore to lay before you those views, that you^may the 
 better judge of this part of the contrivance, when 
 you have the whole scene before you. \ 
 
 The Jews were a weak superstitious people, 
 and, as is common among such people, gave great 
 credit to some traditionary prophecies about their 
 own country. They had, besides, some old books 
 among them, which they esteemed to be writings of 
 certain prophets, who had formerly lived among 
 them, and whose memory they had in great venera- 
 tion. From such old books and traditions they 
 formed many extravagant expectations : and among 
 
THE WITNESSES. 375 
 
 the rest one was, that some time or other a great 
 victorious prince would rise among them, and sub- 
 due all their enemies, and make them lords of the 
 world. In Augustus' time they were in a low state, 
 reduced under the Roman yoke ; and as they never 
 wanted a deliverer more, so the eagerness of this 
 hope, as it happens to weak minds, turned into a 
 firm expectation that he would soon come. This , 
 proved a temptation to some bold, and to some 
 cunning men, to personate the prince so much ex- 
 pected ; and ' nothing is more natural and common 
 to promote rebellions, than to ground them on new 
 prophecies, or new interpretations of old ones : pro- 
 phecies being suited to the vulgar superstition, and 
 operating with the force of religion.' Accordingly, 
 many such impostors rose, pretended to be the 
 victorious prince expected ; and they, and the 
 people who followed them, perished in the folly of 
 their attempt. 
 
 But Jesus, knowing that victories and triumphs, 
 were not things to be counterfeited ; that the people 
 were not to be delivered from the Roman yoke by 
 sleight of hand : and having no hope of being able 
 to cope with the emperor of Rome in good earnest, 
 took another and more successful method to carry 
 on his design. He took upon him to be the prince 
 foretold in the antient prophets ; but then he insisted 
 that the true sense of the prophecies had been mis- 
 taken ; that they related not to the kingdoms of this 
 world, but to the kingdom of heaven ; that the 
 Messias was not to be a conquering prince, but a 
 suffering one ; that he was not to come with his 
 horses of war, and chariots of war, but was to be 
 meek and lowly, and riding on an ass. By this 
 
376 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 means he got the common and necessary foundation 
 for a new revelation, which is to be built and founded 
 on a precedent revelation. 
 
 To carry on this design, he made choice of twelve 
 men of no fortunes or education, and of such under- 
 standings as gave no jealousy that they would dis- 
 cover the plot. And what is most wonderful, and 
 shows their ability ; whilst the master was preaching 
 the kingdom of heaven, these poor men, not weaned 
 from the prejudices of their country, expected every 
 tjpy that he would declare himself a king, and were 
 quarrelling who would be his first minister. This 
 expectation had a good effect on the service, for it 
 kept them constant to their master. •. > 
 
 I must observe farther, that the Jews were under 
 strange apprehensions of supernatural powers ; and 
 as their own religion was founded on the belief ot 
 certain miracles said to be wrought by their lawgiver 
 Moses; so were they ever running after wonders 
 and miracles, and ready to take up with any stories 
 of this kind. Now as something extraordinary was 
 necessary to support the pretensions of Jesus, he 
 dexterously laid hold on this weakness of the peo- 
 ple, and set up to be a wonder-worker. His dis- 
 ciples were well qualified to receive this impression ; 
 they saw, or thought they saw, many strange things, 
 and were able to spread the fame and report of them 
 abroad. 
 
 This conduct had the desired success. The 
 whole country was alarmed, and full of the news of 
 a great prophet's being come among them. They 
 were too full of their own imagination, to attend to the 
 notion of a kingdom of heaven : here was one mighty 
 in deed and in word ; and they concluded he was 
 
THE WITNESSES. 377 
 
 fhe very prince their nation expected. Accordingly 
 they once attempted to set him up for a king- ; and 
 at another time attended him in triumph to Jeru- 
 salem. This natural consequence opens the natural 
 design of the attempt. If things had gone on suc- 
 cessfully to the end, it is probable the kingdom of 
 heaven would have been changed into a kingdom 
 of this world. The design indeed failed, by the 
 impatience and over-hastiness of the multitude, 
 which alarmed not only the chief of the Jews, but 
 the Roman governor also. 
 
 The case being come to this point, and Jesus seeing 
 that he could hot escape being put to death, he 
 declared that the antient prophets had foretold that 
 the Messias should die upon a cross, and that lie 
 should rise again on the third day. Here was the 
 foundation laid for the continuing this plot, which 
 otherwise had died with its author. This was his 
 legacy to his folio wers, which having been well 
 managed by them and their successors, has at last 
 produced a kingdom indeed, a kingdom of priests, 
 who have governed the world for many ages, and 
 have been strong enough to set kings and emperors 
 at defiance. But so it happens, the antient pro- 
 phets appealed to are still extant ; and there being 
 no such prophecies of the death and Resurrection 
 of the Messias, they are a standing evidence against 
 this story. As he expected, so it happened, that 
 he died on a cross, and the prosecuting of this 
 contrivance was left to the management of his 
 disciples and followers. Their part is next to be 
 considered — 
 
 Mr. B. My lord, since it is your opinion that 
 the objections should be considered singly, and the 
 
 (16.) 3 b 
 
378 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 gentleman has carried this scheme down to the 
 death of Christ, I think he is come to a proper 
 rest ; and that it is agreeable to your intention that 
 I should be admitted to answer. 
 
 Judge. You say right, sir. Let us hear what 
 you answer to this charge. 
 
 Mr. B. My lord, I was unwilling to disturb the 
 gentleman by breaking in upon his scheme, other- 
 wise I should have reminded him, that this court 
 sits to examine evidence, and not to be entertained 
 with fine imaginations. You have had a scheme 
 laid before you, but not one bit of evidence to sup- 
 port any part of it ; no, not so much as a pretence 
 to any evidence. The gentleman, I remember, was 
 very sorry that the old books of the Jews were lost, 
 which would, as .he supposes, have set forth all this 
 matter ; and I agree with him that he has much 
 reason to be sorry, considering his great scarcity of 
 proof. And since I have mentioned this, that I 
 may not be to return to it again, T would ask the 
 gentleman now, how he knows there ever were such 
 books ? And since if ever there were any, they are , 
 lost, how he knows what they contained ? I doubt 
 I shall have frequent occasion to ask such questions. 
 It would indeed be a sufficient answer to the whole, 
 to repeat the several suppositions that have been 
 made, and to call for the evidence upon which they 
 stand. This would plainly discover every part of the 
 story to be mere fiction. But since the gentleman 
 seems to have endeavoured to bring under one 
 view the many insinuations which have of late been 
 spread abroad by different hands, and to work the 
 whole into a consistent scheme ; I will, if your 
 
THE WITNESSES. 379 
 
 patience shall permit, examine this plot, and see to 
 whom the honour of the contrivance belongs. 
 
 The gentleman begins with expressing his amaze- 
 ment, ' that the Resurrection has .been believed in 
 all ages of the church.' If you ask him, Why? he 
 must answer, Because the account of it is a forgery ; 
 for it is no amazement to him, surely, that a true 
 account should be generally well received ; so that 
 this remark proceeds indeed from confidence rather 
 than amazement, and comes only to this, that he is 
 sure there was no Resurrection ; and I am sure this 
 is no evidence that there was none. Whether he is 
 mistaken in his confidence, or I in mine, the court 
 must judge. 
 
 The gentleman's observations, that the general 
 belief of the Resurrection creates a presumption 
 that it stands upon good evidence, and therefore 
 people look no farther, but follow their fathers, as 
 their fathers did their grandfathers before them, is 
 in a great measure true, but it is a truth nothing to 
 his purpose. He allows that the Resurrection has 
 been believed in all ages of the church ; that is, 
 from the very time of the Resurrection : what then 
 prevailed with those who first received it ? They 
 certainly did not follow the example of their fathers. 
 Here then is the point, how did this fact gain credit 
 in the world at first ? Credit it has gained without 
 doubt. If the multitude at present go into tnis 
 belief through prejudice, example, and for company 
 sake, they do in this case no more, nor otherwise, 
 than they do in all cases. And it cannot be denied, 
 but that the truth may be received through prejudice 
 (as it is called) i. e. without examining the proof or 
 merits of the cause, as well as falsehood. What 
 
380 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 general truth is there, the merits of which all the 
 world, or the hundredth part has examined ? It is 
 smartly said somewhere, that the priest only con- 
 tinues what the nurse began : but the life of the 
 remark consists in the quaintness of the antithesis 
 between the nurse and the priest ; and owes its 
 support much more to. sound than to sense. For 
 is it possible that children should not hear some- 
 thing of the common and popular opinions of their 
 country, whether those opinions be true or false r 
 Do they not learn the common maxims of reason 
 thft way ? Perhaps every man first learnt from his 
 nurse, that two and two make four ; and whenever 
 she divides an apple among her children, she instils 
 into them this prejudice, that the whole is equal to 
 its parts, and all the parts equal to the whole ; and 
 yet Sir Isaac Newton, (shame on* him) what work 
 has he made, what a building has he erected upon 
 the foundation of this nursery learning ? As to 
 religion, there never was a religion, there never will 
 be one, whether true or false, publicly owned in any 
 country, but children have heard, and ever will hear, 
 more or less, of it from those who are placed about 
 them. And if this is, and ever must be the case, 
 whether the religion be true or false ; it is highly 
 absurd to lay stress on this observation, when the 
 question is about the truth of any religion ; for 
 the observation is indifferent to both sides of the 
 question. 
 
 We are now, I think, got through the common- 
 place learning, which must for ever it seems attend 
 upon questions of this nature ; and are coming to 
 the very merits of the cause. 
 
 And here the gentleman on the other side thought 
 
THE WITNESSES. 381 
 
 proper to begin with an account cf the people of the 
 Jews, the people in whose country the fact is laid, 
 and who were originally and in some respects prin- 
 cipally concerned in its consequences. 
 
 They were, he says, a weak superstitious people, 
 and lived uuder the influence of certain pretended 
 prophecies and predictions ; that upon this ground 
 they had, some time before the appearance of Christ 
 Jesus, conceived great expectations of' the coining- ol . 
 a victorious prince, who should deliver them from the 
 Roman yoke, and make them ail kings and princes. 
 He goes on then to observe, how H< >Ie the people 
 were, in this state of things to be imposed on, and 
 led into rebellion, by any one who was bold enough 
 to take upon him to personate the prince expected. 
 He observes further, that in fact many such impos- 
 tors did arise, and deceived multitudes to their ruin 
 and destruction. 
 
 I have laid these things together, because I do 
 not intend to dispute these matters with the gentle- 
 man. Whether the Jews were a weak and super- 
 stitious people, and influenced by false prophecies, 
 or whether they had true prophecies among them, 
 is not material to the present question ; it is enough 
 for the gentleman's argument, if I allow the fact to 
 be as he has stated it, that they did expect a victo- 
 rious prince, that they were upon this account 
 exposed to be practised on by pretenders ; and in 
 fact were often so deluded. 
 
 This foundation being laid, it was natural to 
 expect, and I believe your lordship and every one 
 present did expect that the gentleman would go 
 on to show, that Jesus laid hold of this opportunity, 
 struct in with the opinion of the people, and professed 
 
382 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 himself to be the prince who was to work their de- 
 liverance. But so far it seems is this from beins; the 
 case, that the charge upon Jesus is, that he took the 
 contrary part, and set up in opposition to all the 
 popular notions and prejudices of his country ; that 
 he interpreted the prophecies to another sense and 
 meaning ithan his countrymen did ; and by his 
 expositions took away all hopes of their ever seeing 
 the victorious deliverer so much wanted and ex- 
 pected. 
 
 I know not how to bring the gentleman's premises 
 a>id his conclusion to any agreement, they seem to 
 be at a great variance at present. If it be the like- 
 liest method for an impostor to succeed, to build 
 on the popular opinions, prejudices and prophecies 
 of the people ; then surely an impostor cannot 
 possibly take a worse method than to set up in 
 opposition to all the prejudices, and prophecies of 
 the country. Where was the art and cunning then 
 of taking this method? Could any thing be ex- 
 pected from it but hatred, contempt, and persecu- 
 tion? And did Christ in fact meet with any other 
 treatment from the Jews ? And yet when he found, 
 as the gentleman allows he did, that he must perish 
 in this attempt, did he change his note? Did he 
 come about, and drop any intimations agreeable to 
 the notions of the people ? It is not pretended* 
 This, which in any other .case which ever happened, 
 would be taken to be a plain mark of great honesty, 
 or great stupidity, .or of both, is in the present case, 
 art, policy, and contrivance. 
 
 But it seems Jesus dared not set up to be the 
 victorious prince expected, for victories are not to 
 be counterfeited. I hope it was no crime in him 
 
THE WITNESSES. 383 
 
 that he did not assume this false character, and try 
 to abuse the credulity of the people ? If he had 
 done so, it certainly would have been a crime ; and 
 therefore in this point at least he is innocent. I do 
 not suppose the gentleman imagines' that the Jews 
 were well founded in their expectation of a temporal 
 prince ; and therefore when Christ opposed this 
 conceit at the manifest hazard of his life, as he 1 
 certainly had truth on his side, so the presumption 
 is, that it was for the sake of truth, that he exposed 
 himself. 
 
 No ; he wanted, we are told, the common and 
 necessary foundation for a new revelation, the au- 
 thority of an old one, to build on: Very well ; I 
 will not enquire how common or how necessary this 
 foundation is to a new revelation :*for be that case 
 as it will, it is evident that in the method Christ 
 took, he had not, nor could have the supposed ad- 
 vantage of such foundation. For why is this foun- 
 dation necessary ? A friend of the gentleman's shall 
 tell you. ' Because it must be difficult, if not im- 
 possible, to introduce among men (who in all civilized 
 countries are bred up in the belief of some revealed 
 religion) a revealed religion wholly new, or such as 
 has no reference to a preceding, one ; for that would 
 be to combat all men on too many respects, and 
 not to proceed on a sufficient number of principles 
 necessary to be assented to by those on whom the 
 first impressions of a new religion are proposed to 
 be made.' You see now the reason of the necessity 
 of this foundation ; it is that the new teacher may 
 have the advantage of old popular opinions, and fix 
 himself upon the prejudices of the people. Had 
 Christ any such advantages ? or did he seek any 
 
384 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 such.? The people expected a victorious prince, 
 he told them they were mistaken ; they held as 
 sacred the traditions of the elders, he told them 
 those traditions made the law of God of none 
 efiect ; they valued themselves for being the pecu- 
 liar- people of God, he told them that people from 
 all quarters of the world should be the people of 
 God, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob in the kingdom; they thought God could 
 be worshipped only at Jerusalem, he told them God 
 nfight and should be worshipped every where ; they 
 were superstitious in observance of the sabbath ; he, 
 according- to their reckoning, broke it frequently ; in 
 a word, their washing of hands and pots ; their 
 superstitious distinctions of meats, their prayers in 
 public, their villainies in secret, were all reproved, 
 exposed, and condemned by him ; and the cry ran 
 strongly against him, that he came to destroy the 
 law and the prophets. And now, sir, what ad- 
 vantage had Christ of your common and necessary 
 foundation ? What sufficient number of principles 
 owned by the people did he build on? If he ad- 
 hered to the old revelation in the true sense, or 
 (which is sufficient to the present argument) in a 
 sense not received by the people, it was in truth 
 the greatest difficulty he had to struggle with ; and 
 therefore what could tempt him, but purely a regard 
 to truth, to take upon himself so many difficulties, 
 which might have been avoided could he have been 
 but silent as to the old revelation, and left the 'people 
 to their imaginations ? 
 
 To carry on this plot, we are told, that the next 
 thing which Jesus did, was to make choice of proper 
 persons to be his disciples ; the gentleman has given 
 
THE WITNESSES. 385 
 
 us their character ; but, as I suppose, he has more 
 employment for them before he has done, I desire to 
 defer the consideration of their abilities and conduct 
 till I hear what work he has for them to do ; I would 
 only observe that thus far this plot differs from all 
 that ever I heard of: impostors generally take ad- 
 vantage of the prejudices of the people ; generally 
 too they make choice of cunning dexterous fellows 
 to manage under them ; but in this case Jesus op- 
 posed all the notions of the people ; and made 
 choice of simpletons it seems to conduct his con- 
 trivances. 
 
 But what design, what real end was carrying on 
 all this while ? Why, the gentleman tells us, that 
 the very thing disclaimed, the temporal kingdom, 
 was the real thing aimed at under this disguise; he 
 told the people there was no foundation to expect 
 a temporal deliverer, warned them against all who 
 should set up those pretensions ; he declared there 
 was no ground from the antient* prophecies to ex- 
 pect such a prince, and yet by these very means he 
 was working his way to an opportunity of declaring 
 himself to be the very prince the people wanted. 
 We are still upon the marvellous; every step opens 
 new wonders. I blame not the gentleman ; for 
 what but this can be imagined to give any account 
 of these measures imputed to Christ? Be this nevei 
 so unlikely, yet this is the only thing that can be 
 said. Had Christ been charged with enthusiasm, it 
 would not have been necessary to assign a reason 
 for his conduct ; madness is unaccountable ; ratione 
 niodoque tractari non vult. But when design, cunning, 
 and fraud are made the charge, and carried to such 
 an height, as to suppose him to be a party to the 
 (17.) 3 c 
 
MM THE TRIAL OF 
 
 contrivance of a sham resurrection for himself, it is 
 necessary to say to what end this cunning tended ; 
 it was, we are told, to a kingdom ; and indeed the 
 temptation was little enough, considering that the 
 chief conductor of the plot was to be crucified for 
 his pains. But were the means made use of at all 
 probable to attain the end ? Yes, says the gentle- 
 man, that cannot be disputed ; for they had really 
 this effect, the people would have made him king. 
 Very well : Why was he not king then ? Why, it 
 happened unluckily that he would not accept the 
 offer, but withdrew himself from the multitude and 
 lay concealed till they were dispersed. It will be 
 said perhaps that Jesus was a better judge of affairs 
 than the people, and saw that it was not yet time 
 to accept the offer. Be it so ; let us see then what 
 follows. 
 
 The government was alarmed, and Jesus was 
 looked on as a person dangerous to the state ; and 
 he had discernment enough to see that his death 
 was determined and inevitable : what does he do 
 then ? Why, to make the best of a bad cause, and 
 to save the benefit of his undertaking to those who 
 were to succeed him, he pretends to prophesy of 
 his death, which he knew could not be avoided : 
 and further, that he should rise again the third 
 day. — Men do not use to play tricks in articulo 
 Mortis ; but this plot had nothing common, nothing 
 in the ordinary way. But what if it should appear, 
 that after the foretelling of his death (through 
 despair of his fortunes it is said) he had it in his 
 power to set up for a king once more, and once 
 more refused the opportunity ? Men in despair lay 
 hold on the least help, and never refuse the greatest. 
 
THE WITNESSES. 387 
 
 Now the case was really so ; after he had foretold 
 his crucifixion, he came to Jerusalem in the trium- 
 phant manner the gentleman mentioned ; the people 
 strewed his way with boughs and flowers, and were 
 all at his devotion ; the Jewish governors lay still 
 for fear of the people. Why was not this oppor- 
 tunity laid hold on to seize the kingdom, or at least 
 to secure himself from the ignominious death he 
 expected ? For whose sake was he contented 
 to die ? For whose sake did he contrive this 
 plot of his Resurrection ? Wife and children he 
 had none ; his nearest relations gave little credit to 
 him ; his disciples were not fit even to be trusted 
 with the secret, nor capable to manage any advan- 
 tage that could arise from it. However, the gentle- 
 man tells us, a kingdom has arisen out of this plot, 
 a kingdom of priests. But when did it arise ? 
 Some hundred years after the death of Christ, in 
 opposition to bis will, and almost to the subversion 
 of his religion. And yet we are told this kingdom 
 was the thing he had in view. I am apt to think 
 the gentleman is persuaded that the dominion he 
 complains of is contrary to the spirit of the gospel ; 
 I am sure some of his friends have taken great pains 
 to prove it so. How then can it be charged as the 
 intention of the gospel to introduce it ? Whatever 
 the case was, it cannot surely be suspected that 
 Christ died to make popes and cardinals. The 
 alterations which have happened in the doctrines 
 and practices of churches, since the Christian re- 
 ligion was settled by those who had an authentic 
 commission to settle it, are quite out of the question, 
 when the enquiry is about the truth of the Christian 
 religion. Christ and his apostles did not vouch for 
 
;5Bi> THE TRIAL Oi< 
 
 the truth of all that should be taught m the church 
 in future times*; nay, they foretold and forewarned 
 the world against such corrupt teachers. It is 
 therefore absurd to challenge the religion of Christ 
 because of the corruptions which" have spread among 
 Christians ; the gospel has no more concern with 
 them, and ought to be no, more charged with them 
 than with the doctrines of the Alcoran. 
 
 There is but one observation more, I think, which 
 J he gentleman made under this head : Jesus, he 
 says, referred to the authority of antieut prophecies 
 to ^>rove that the Messias was to die and rise again ; 
 the antient books referred to are extant, and no such 
 prophecies, he says, are to be found. Now, whe- 
 ther the gentleman can find these prophecies or no, 
 is not material to the present question. It is allowed 
 that Christ foretold his own death and Resurrection ; 
 if the Resurrection was managed by fraud, Christ 
 was certainly in the fraud himself, by foretelling- the 
 fraud that was to happen ; disprove therefore the 
 Resurrection, and we shall have no further occasion 
 for prophecy. On the other side ; by foretelling the 
 Resurrection, he certainly put the proof of his mission 
 on the truth of the event. Whether it be the charac- 
 ter of the Messias in the antient prophets or no, that 
 he should die and rise again ; without doubt Jesus 
 is not the Messias, if he did not rise again ; for by 
 his own prophecy he made it part of the character 
 ot the Messias. If the event justified the prediction, 
 it is such an evidence as no man of sense and reason 
 can reject. One would naturally think, that the 
 foretelling his Resurrection, and giving such public 
 notice to expect it, that his keenest enemies were 
 fully, apprized of it, carried with it the greatest mark 
 
THE WITNESSES. 389 
 
 of sincere dealing ; it stands tbns far clear of the 
 suspicion of fraud, and had it proceeded from en- 
 thusiasm, and a heated imagination, the dead body 
 at least would have rested in the grave, and without 
 further e\idence have confuted such pretensions; 
 and since the dead body was not only carried 
 openly to the grave, but there watched and guard- 
 ed, and yet could never afterwards be found, never 
 heard of more as a dead body, there must ofiie- 
 cessity have been either a real miracle, or a great 
 fraud in this case ; enthusiasm dies with the man, 
 and has no operation on his dead body ; there is 
 therefore here no medium ; you must either admit 
 the miracle or prove the fraud. 
 
 Judge. Mr. A. you are at liberty either to reply 
 to what has been said under this head, or to so on 
 with your cause. 
 
 Mr. A. My lord, the observations I laid before 
 you were introductory to the main evidence on which 
 the merits of the cause must rest ; the gentleman 
 concluded that here must be a real miracle or a 
 great fraud ; a fraud, he means, to which Jesus in 
 his life-time was a party ; there is, he says, no 
 medium ; \ beg his pardon : why might it not be 
 an enthusiasm in the master which occasioned the 
 prediction, and fraud in the servants who put it in 
 execution ? 
 
 Mr. B. My lord, this is new matter, and not a 
 reply ; the gentleman opened this transaction as a 
 fraud from one end to the other. Now he supposes 
 Christ to have been an honest, poor enthusiast, and 
 the disciples only to be cheats. 
 
 Judge. Sir, if you go to new matter, the couusel 
 on the other side must be admitted to answer. 
 
390 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 ' Mr. A. My lord, I have no such intention ; I 
 was observing, that the account I gave of Jesus was 
 only to introduce the evidence that is to be laki 
 before the court ; it cannot be expected that I 
 should know all the secret designs of this contriv- 
 ance, especially considering that we have but short 
 accounts of this affair, and those too conveyed to us 
 through the bauds of friends and parties to the- plot; 
 in such a case it is enough if we can imagine what 
 the views probably were ; and in such case too it 
 *nust be very easy for a gentleman of parts to raise 
 contrary imaginations, and to argue plausibly. from 
 them. But the gentleman has rightly observed, that 
 if the Resurrection be a fraud, there is an end of all 
 pretensions, good or bad, that were to be supported 
 by it ; therefore I shall go on to prove this fraud, 
 which is one main part of the cause now to be 
 determined. 
 
 I beg leave to remind you, that Jesus in his life- 
 time foretold his death, and that he should rise again 
 the third day. The first part of his prediction was 
 accomplished ; he died upon the cross, and was 
 buried. I will not trouble you with the particulars 
 of his crucifixion, death, and burial ; it is a well 
 known story. 
 
 Mr. B. My lord, I desire to know whether the 
 gentleman charges any fraud upon this part of the 
 history ; perhaps he may be of opinion by and by 
 that there was, a sleight of hand in the crucifixion, 
 and that Christ only counterfeited death. 
 
 Mr. A. No, no; have no such fears; he was 
 not crucified by his disciples, but by the Romans 
 and the Jews ; and they were in very good earne^ 
 I will prove beyond contradiction that the dead 
 
THE WITNESSES. 291 
 
 body was fairly laid in the tomb, and the tomb 
 sealed up ; and it will be well for you if you can 
 get it as fairly out again. 
 
 Judge. Go on with your evidence. 
 
 Mr. A. My lord, the crucifixion being over, the 
 dead body was conveyed to the sepulchre ; and in 
 the general opinion there seemed to be an end of 
 the whole design. But the governors of the Jews, 
 watchful for the safety of the people, called to mind, 
 that Jesus in his life-time had said that he would 
 rise again on the third day. It may at first sight 
 seem strange that they should give any attention to 
 such a prophecy, a prophecy big with confidence 
 and presumption, and which to the common sense 
 of mankind carried its confutation along with it. 
 And ' there is no other nation in the* world which 
 would not have slighted such a vain prognostication 
 of a known impostor.' But they had warning to be 
 watchful. It was not long before that the people 
 ' had like to have been fatally deluded and imposed 
 on by him in the pretended resuscitation of Lazarus.' 
 They had fully discovered the cheat in the case of 
 Lazarus, and had narrowly escaped the dangerous 
 consequences of it. And though Jesus was dead, 
 yet he had many disciples and followers alive, who 
 were ready enough to combine in any fraud, to 
 verify the prediction of their master. Should they 
 succeed, the ml rs foresaw the consequence in this 
 case would be more fatal than those which before 
 they had narrowly escaped. Upon this account 
 they addressed themselves to the Roman governor, 
 told him how the case was, and desired that he 
 would grant them a guard to watch the sepulchre ; 
 that the service would not be long, for the prediction 
 
392 TilE TRIAL OF 
 
 limited the Resurrection to the third day ; and when 
 that was over, the soldiers might be released' from 
 the duty. Pilate granted the request, and a guard 
 was set to watch the sepulchre. 
 
 This was not all ; the chief priests took another 
 method to prevent all frauds, and it was the best 
 that could possibly be taken ; which was to seal 
 up the door of the sepulchre. To understand to 
 what purpose this caution was used, you need only 
 consider what is intended by sealing up doors, and 
 %oxes, or writings ; is it not for the satisfaction of 
 all the parties concerned, that they may be sure 
 tilings are in the state they left them, when they 
 come and find their seals not injured ? This was 
 the method used by Darius, when Daniel was cast 
 iuto the lion's den; he sealed the door of the den*; 
 and for what purpose ? Was it not to satisfy him- 
 self and his court that no art had been used to pre- 
 serve Daniel ? And when he came and saw Daniel 
 safe, and his own seal untouched, he was satisfied ; 
 and indeed if we consider the thing rightly, a seal 
 thus used imports a covenant. If you deliver 
 writings to a person sealed, and he accepts them 
 so, your delivery and his acceptance implies a 
 covenant between you that the writings shall be 
 delivered and the seal whole ; and should the seal 
 be broken, it would be a manifest fraud and breach 
 of trust ; nay, so strongly is this covenant implied, 
 that there needs no special agreement in the case : 
 it is a compact which men are put under by the law 
 of nations, and the common consent of mankind. 
 When you send a letter sealed to the post-house, 
 you have not indeed a special agreement with all 
 persons through whose hands it passes that it shall 
 
THE WITNESSES. 303 
 
 not be opened by any hand but his only to whom it 
 is directed, yet men know themselves to be under 
 this restraint, and that it is unlawful and dishonour- 
 able to transgress it. 
 
 Since then the sepulchre was sealed ; since the 
 seal imported a covenant, consider who were the 
 parties to this covenant : they could be no other 
 than the chief priests on the one side, the apostles 
 on the other; to prove this no special agreement 
 need be shown ; on one side there was a concern 
 to see the prediction fulfilled ; on the other, to 
 prevent fraud in fulfilling it ; the sum of their 
 agreement was naturally this, that the seals should 
 be opened at the time appointed for the Resurrec- 
 tion, that all parties might see and be satisfied 
 whether the dead body was come to life or no. 
 
 What now would any reasonable man expect 
 from these circumstances ? Do not you expect to 
 hear that the chief priests and the apostles met at 
 the time appointed, opened the seals, and that the 
 matter in dispute was settled beyond all controversy 
 one way or other ? But see how it happened ; the 
 seals were broken, the body stolen away in the 
 night by the disciples, none of the chief priests 
 present, or summoned to see the seals opened ; 
 the guards when examined were forced to confess 
 the truth, though joined with an acknowledgment 
 ofc their guilt, which made them liable to be punished 
 by Pilate ; they confessed that they were asleep, and 
 in the mean time that the body was stolen away by 
 the disciples. 
 
 This evidence of the Roman soldiers, and the far 
 stronger evidence arising from the clandestine manner 
 of breaking up the seals, are sufficient proofs of fraud, 
 
 (i'7.) 3 D 
 
394 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 But there is another circumstance in the case of 
 equal weight; though the seals did not prevent the 
 cheat entirely, yet they effectually falsified the pre- 
 diction ; according to the prediction, Jesus was to 
 rise on the third day, or after the third day ; at 
 this time the chief priests intended to be present, 
 and probably would have been attended by a great 
 multitude ; this made it impossible to play any tricks 
 at that time, and therefore the apostles were forced 
 to hasten the plot, and accordingly the Resurrection 
 happened a day before its time ; for the body was 
 bfcried on the Friday, and was gone early in the 
 morning on Sunday. 
 
 These are plain facts, facts drawn from the ac- 
 counts given us by those who are friends to the 
 belief of the Resurrection. The gentleman will not 
 call these imaginations, or complain that I have 
 given him schemes instead of evidence. 
 
 Mr. B. My lord, I am now to consider that part 
 of the argument upon which the gentleman lays the 
 greatest stress. He has given us Iris evidence, mere 
 evidence, he says, unmixed, and clear of all schemes 
 and imaginations. In one thing indeed he has been 
 as good as his word ; he has proved beyond con- 
 tradiction that Christ died and was laid in the 
 sepulchre ; for without doubt, when the Jews sealed 
 the stone, they took care to see that the body was 
 there, otherwise their precaution was useless. He 
 has proved too, that the prediction of Christ con- 
 cerning his own Resurrection, was a thing publicly 
 known in all Jerusalem ; for he owns that this gave 
 occasion for all the care that was taken to prevent 
 fraud. If this open prediction implies a fraudulent 
 design, the evidence is strong with the gentleman ; 
 
THE WITNESSES. 395 
 
 but if it shall apoear to be, what it really was, the 
 greatest mark that could be given of sincerity and 
 plain dealing in the whole affair, the evidence will 
 be still as strong, but the weight of it will fall on the 
 wrong side for the gentleman's purpose. 
 
 In the next place, the gentleman seems to be at a 
 great loss to account for the credit which the chief 
 priests gave to the prediction of the Resurrection, 
 by the care they took to prevent it ; he thinks the 
 thing in itself was too extravagant and absurd to 
 deserve any regard ; and that no one would have 
 regarded such a prediction in any other time or 
 place. I agree with the gentleman entirely ; but 
 then I demand of him a reason why the chief priests 
 were under any concern about this prediction ; was 
 it because they had plainly discovered him to be 
 a cheat and an impostor ? It is impossible ; this 
 reason would have convinced them of the folly and 
 presumption of the prediction ; it must therefore 
 necessarily be that they had discovered something 
 in the life and actions of Christ which raised their 
 jealousy, and made them listen to a prophecy in this 
 case, which in any other case they would have 
 despised ; and what could this be but the secret 
 conviction they were under by his many miracles 
 of his extraordinary power? This care therefore 
 of the chief priests over his dead helpless body, is 
 a lasting testimony of the mighty works which Jesus 
 did in his life-time ; for had the Jews been per- 
 suaded that he performed no wonders in his life, I 
 think they would not have been afraid of seeing any 
 done by him after his death. 
 
 But the gentleman is of another mind ; he says 
 they had discovered a plain cheat in the case of 
 
38fl THE TRIAL OF 
 
 Lazarus, whom Christ had pretended to raise from 
 the dead, and therefore they took all this care to 
 guard against a like cheat. 
 
 I begin now to want evidence ; I am forbid to 
 call this imagination, what else to call it I know 
 not ; there is not the least intimation given from 
 history that there was any cheat in the case of La- 
 zarus, or that any one suspected a cheat. Lazarus 
 lived in the country after he was raised from the 
 dead, and though his life was secretly and basely 
 sought after, yet nobody had the courage to call 
 him to a trial for his part of the cheat. It may be 
 said perhaps the rulers were terrified ; very well, 
 but they were not terrified when they had Christ 
 in their possession, when they brought him to a 
 trial ; why did they not then object this cheat to 
 Christ? It would have been much to their pur- 
 pose ; instead of that, they accuse him of a design 
 to pull down their temple, to destroy their law, and 
 of blasphemy ; but not one word of any fraud in 
 the case of Lazarus, or any other case. 
 
 But not to enter into the merits of this cause, 
 which has in it too many circumstances for your 
 present consideration ; let us take the case to be as 
 the gentleman states it, that the cheat in the case of 
 Lazar.us was detected ; what consequence is to be 
 expected ? In all other cases, impostors, once dis- 
 covered, grow odious and contemptible, and quite 
 incapable of doing further mischief; so little are 
 they regarded, that even when they tell the truth 
 ihey are neglected. Was it so in this case ? No, 
 says the gentleman, the Jews were the more careful 
 that Christ should not cheat them in his own Resur- 
 rection. Surely this is a most singular case ; when 
 
THE WITNESSES. 397 
 
 the people thought him a prophet, the chief priests 
 sought to kill him, and thought his death would put 
 an end to his pretensions ; when they and the people 
 had discovered him to be a cheat, then they thought 
 him not safe, even when lie was dead, but were 
 afraid he should prove a true prophet, and accord- 
 ing to his own prediction, rise again. A needless, 
 a preposterous fear ! 
 
 In the next place, the gentleman tells us how* 
 proper the care was that the chief priests took. I 
 agree perfectly with him ; human policy conld not 
 invent a more proper method to guard against and 
 prevent all fraud; they delivered the sepulchre, 
 with the dead body in it, to a company of Roman 
 •soldiers, who had orders from their officer to natch 
 the sepulchre ; their care went further still, they 
 sealed the door of the sepulchre. 
 
 Upon this occasion the gentleman has explained 
 the use of seals when appled to such purposes*; 
 they imply, he says, a covenant, that the things 
 sealed up shall remain in the condition they are till 
 the parties to the sealing are agreed to open (hem. 
 I see no reason to enter into the learning about 
 seals, let it be as the gentleman has opened it ; 
 what then ? 
 
 Why then it seems the apostles and chief priests 
 were in a covenant that there should be no Resur- 
 rection, at least, no opening of the door till they met 
 together at an appointed time to \ie\v and unseal the 
 door. 
 
 Your lordship and the court will now consider 
 the probability of this supposition. When Christ 
 was seized and carried to his trial, his disciples 
 fled, and hid themselves for fear of the Jews, out of 
 
398 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 a just apprehension that they s-.ould, T apprehended, 
 be sacrificed with their master; Peter indeed follow- 
 ed him, but his courage soon failed, and it is well 
 known in what manner he denied him. After the 
 death of Christ, his disciples were so far from being 
 ready to engage for his Resurrection, or to enter 
 into terms and agreements for the manner in which 
 it should be done, that they themselves di ' not 
 believe it ever would be ; they gave over all hopes 
 and thoughts of it ; and far from entering into en- 
 gagements with the chief priests, their whole con- 
 cern was to keep themselves concealed from them : 
 this is a well known case, and I will not trouble you 
 -with particular authorities to prove this truth. Can 
 anv man now in his right senses think that the dis- 
 ciples under these circumstances entered into this 
 covenant with the Jews ? I believe the gentleman 
 does not think it, and for that reason says, that seals 
 so used import a covenant without a special agree- 
 ment ; be it so, and it must then be allowed that 
 the apostles were no more concerned in these seals 
 than every other man in the country, and no more 
 answerable for them ; for the covenant reached to 
 
 vy body as well as to them, since they were 
 under no special contract. 
 
 I3ut I beg pardon for spending your time un- 
 
 essartly, when the simple plain account of this 
 matter will best answer all these jealousies and 
 suspicions. The Jews it is plain r.ere exceedingly 
 solicitous about this event ; for this reason they 
 obtained a guard from Pilate; and when they had, 
 they were still suspicious lest their guards should 
 deceive them, and enter into combination against 
 them. To secure this point, they sealed the door, 
 
THE WITNESSES. 399 
 
 •and required the guards to deliver up the sepulchre 
 to them sealed as it was ; this is the natural and 
 true account of the matter. Do but consider it in 
 a parallel case: suppose a prince should set a guard 
 at the door of his treasury, and the officer who 
 placed the guard should seal the door, and say to 
 the soldiers, you shall be answerable for the seal if 
 I find it broken ; would not all the world under- 
 stand the seal to be fixed to guard against the 
 soldiers, who might, though employed to keep off 
 others, be ready enougii to pilfer themselves? This 
 is in all such cases, but a necessary care ; you raa) 
 place guards, and when you do, all is in their power: 
 JEt quis custodes custodial ipsos ? 
 
 But it seems that notwithstanding all this care 
 the seals were broken and the body gone ; if you 
 complain of this, sir, demand satisfaction of your 
 guards, they only are responsible for it ; the dis- 
 ciples had no more to do in it than you or I. 
 
 The guards, the gentleman says, have confessed 
 the truth, and owned that they were asleep, and that 
 the disciples in the mean time stole away the body ; 
 I wish the guards were in court, I would ask them 
 how they came to be so punctual in relating what 
 happened when they were asleep ? what induced 
 them to believe that the body was stolen at all ? 
 what, that it was stolen by the disciples, since Ly 
 their own confession they were asleep, and saw 
 nothing, saw nobody ? But since they are not to 
 be had, I would desire to ask the gentleman the 
 same questions, and whether he has any au- 
 thorities in . point to show that ever any man was 
 admitted as an evidence in any court to prove a 
 fact which happened when he was asleep ? I see 
 
400 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 the gentleman is uneasy, I will press the matter no 
 further. 
 
 As this story has no evidence to support it, so 
 neither has it any probability. The gentleman has 
 »i\en yon the character of the disciples, that they 
 were weak, ignorant men, full of the popular pre- 
 judice- and superstitions of their country, which 
 stuck .<>se to them notwithstanding their long 
 acquaintance with their master. The apostles are 
 not much wronged in this account ; and is it likely 
 that such men should engage in so desperate a 
 design, as to steal away the body in opposition to 
 the combined power of the Jews and Romans r 
 What could tempt them to it? What good could 
 the dead body do them ? Or if it could have done 
 them any, what hope had they to succeed in their 
 attempt? A dead body is not to be removed by 
 sleight of hand, it requires many hands to move -it; 
 besides, the great stone at the mouth of the sepul- 
 chre was to be removed, which could not be done 
 silently, or by men walking on tip-toes to prevent 
 discovery ; so that if the guards had really been 
 asleep, yet there was no encouragement to go on in 
 this enterprize ; for it is hardly possible to suppose, 
 but that rolling away the stone, moving the body, 
 the hurry and confusion in carrying it off, must 
 awaken them. 
 
 But supposing the thing practicable, yet the at- 
 tempt was such as the disciples consistently with 
 their own notions could not undertake. The gen- 
 tleman says they continued all their masters life- 
 time to expect to see him a temporal prince; ant' 
 ;i friend of the gentleman's has observed, what i> 
 equally true, that they had the same expectation 
 
THE WITNESSES. 401 
 
 after his death. Consider now their case ; their 
 master was dead, and they are to contrive to steal 
 away his body ; for what ? Did they expect to 
 make a king of the dead body if they could get it 
 into their power ? Or did they think if they had it 
 they could raise it to life again ? If they trusted 
 so far to their master's prediction as to expect his 
 Resurrection (which I think it is evident they did 
 not) could they yet think the Resurrection depended 
 on their having the dead body ? It is in all views 
 absurd. But the gentleman supposes that they 
 meant to carry on the design for themselves in their 
 master's name, if they could but have persuaded the 
 people to believe him risen from the dead ; but he 
 does not consider that by this supposition he strips 
 the disciples of every part of their character at once, 
 and presents to us a new set of m*en, in every respect 
 different from the former; the former disciples were 
 plain, weak men ; but these are bold, hardy, cun- 
 ning, and contriving ; the former were full of the 
 superstition of their country, and expected a prince 
 from the authority of their prophets ; but these are 
 despisers of the prophets, and of the notions of their 
 countrymen, and are designing to turn these fables 
 to their own advantage ; for it cannot be supposed 
 that they believed the prophets, and at the same 
 time thought to accomplish or defeat them by so 
 manifest a cheat, to which they themselves at least 
 were conscious. 
 
 But let us take leave of these suppositions, and see 
 how the true evidence in this case stands. Guards 
 were placed and they did their duty ; but whlit are 
 guards and centinels against the power of God ? 
 An angel of the Lord opened the sepulchre, the t 
 
 (17.) 3 E 
 
THE TRIAL OF 
 
 ;uards saw him, and became like dead men ; this 
 account they gave to the chief priests ; who still 
 persisting in their obstinacy, bribed the guards to 
 tell the contradictory story, of their bemg asleep, 
 and the body stolen. 
 
 I cannot but observe to your lordship, that all 
 Jhese circumstances so much questioned and sus- 
 pected, were necessary circumstances, supposing 
 the Resurrection to be true ; the seal was broken, 
 the body came out of the sepulchre, the guards were 
 placed in vain to prevent it ; be it so, I desire to 
 kn%w whether the gentleman thinks that the seal 
 put God under covenant : or could prescribe to 
 him a method of performing this great work ? Or 
 whether he thinks the guards were placed to main- 
 tain the seal in opposition io the power of God ? 
 If he will maintain neither of these points, then the 
 opening the seals, notwithstanding the guard set 
 upon them, will be an evidence, not of the fraud, but 
 of the power of the Resurrection ; and the guards 
 will have nothing to answer for, but only this, that 
 they were not stronger than God. The sea4 was a 
 proper check upon the guards, the Jews had no 
 oilier meaning in it ; they could not be so stupid 
 as to imagine that they could by this contrivance 
 disappoint the designs of proklence; and it is 
 surj) ising to hear these circumstances made use of 
 to prove the Resurrection to be a fraud, which yet 
 could not but happen supposing the Resurrection to 
 be true. 
 
 But there is another circumstance still, which the 
 gentleman rerkv very rial ial, and upon which I 
 find great stress is laid; the itesurrection happen- 
 ed, -we are tbld, a day sooner than the prediction 
 
THE WITNESSES. 403 
 
 imported ; the reason assigned for it is, that the 
 execution of the plot at the time appointed was 
 rendered impracticable, because the chief priests, 
 and probably great numbers of the people were 
 prepared to visit the sepulchre at that time ; and 
 therefore the disciples were under a necessity of 
 hastening their plot. 
 
 This observation is entirely inconsistent with the 
 supposition upon which the reasoning stands. The 
 gentleman has all along supposed the Resurrection 
 to have been managed by fraud, and not by violence ; 
 and indeed violence, if there had been an opportu- 
 nity of using it, would have been insignificant ; 
 beating the guards, and removing the dead body 
 by force, would have destroyed all pretence to a 
 Resurrection. Now surely the guards, supposing 
 them not to be enough in number to withstand all 
 violence, were at least sufficient to prevent or to 
 discover fraud ; what occasion then to hasten the 
 plot for fear of numbers meeting at the tomb, since 
 there were numbers always present sufficient to 
 discover any fraud ? the only method that could be 
 used in the case. 
 
 Suppose then that we could not give a satisfac- 
 tory account of the way of reckoning the time from 
 the crucifixion to the Resurrection ; yet this we can 
 say, that the Resurrection happened during the 
 time that the guards had the sepulchre in keeping, 
 and it is impossible to imagine what opportunity this 
 could give to fraud ; had the time been delayed, the 
 guards removed, and then a Resurrection pretended, 
 it might with some colour of reason have been said, 
 why did he not come within his time ? why did he 
 choose to come after his time, when all witnesses, 
 
404 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 who had patiently expected the appointed hour, 
 were withdrawn? But now what is to be objected ? 
 You think he came too soon; but \v<eie not your 
 guards at the door when he came ? Did they not 
 see what happened ? And what other satisfaction 
 could you have had supposing he had come a day 
 later ? 
 
 By saying of this, 1 do not mean to decline the 
 gentleman's objection, which is founded upon a 
 mistake of a way of speaking, common to the Jews 
 and other people; who, when they name any num- 
 ber of days and years, include the first and the last 
 of the days or years to make up the sum. Christ, 
 alluding to his own Resurrection, says, In three days 
 I will raise it up. The angels report his prediction 
 thus : The son of man shall be crucified, and the 
 third day rise again. Elsewhere it is said, After 
 three days ; and again, that he was to be in the 
 bowels of the earth three days and three nights. 
 These expressions are equivalent to each other, for 
 we always reckon the night into the day when we 
 reckon by so many days. If you agree to do a 
 thing ten days hence, you stipulate for forbearance 
 for the nights as well as days ; and therefore 
 reckoning two days, and two days and two nights, 
 are the same thing. That the expression, after 
 three days, means inclusive days, is proved by 
 Grotius on Matt, xxvii. 63. and by others. The 
 prediction therefore was, that he would rise on the 
 third day. Now, he was crucified on Friday, and 
 buried ; he lay in the grave all Saturday, and rose 
 early on Sunday morning; but the gentleman thinks 
 he ought not to have risen till Monday. Pray try 
 what the use of common language requires to be 
 
THE WITNESSES, 405 
 
 understood in a like case. Suppose you were* told 
 that your friend sickened on Friday, was let blood 
 on Saturday, and the third day he died ; — what day 
 do you think he died on ? If you have any doubt 
 about it, put the question to the first plain man you 
 meet, and he will resolve it. The Jews could have 
 no doubt in this case, for so they practised in one of 
 the highest points of their law ; every male child 
 was to be circumcised on the eighth day. How did 
 they reckon the days? Why, the day of the birth 
 was one, and the day of the circumcision another ; 
 and though a child was born towards the very end 
 of the first day, he was capable of circumcision oil 
 any time of the eighth day ; and therefore it is not 
 new nor strange that the third day in our case 
 should be reckoned into the number, though Christ 
 rose at the very beginning of it ; it is more strange 
 to reckon whole years in this manner, and yet this 
 is the constant method observed in Ptolemy's canon, 
 the most valuable piece of antient Chronology, next 
 to the Bible, now extant. If a king lived over the 
 first day of a year, and died the week after, that 
 whole year is reckoned to his reign. 
 
 I have now gone through the several objections 
 upon this head ; what credit they may gain in this 
 age I know not ; but it is plain they had no credit 
 when they were first spread abroad ; nay, it is 
 evident that the very persons who set abroad this story 
 of the body being stolen, did not believe it theirs 
 selves. And not to insist here upon the plain fact, 
 which was that the guards were hired to tell this 
 lie by the chief priests, it will appear from the after- 
 conduct of the chief priests themselves, that they 
 were conscious that the story was false. Not long 
 
406 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 after the Resurrection of Christ, the disciples having 
 received new power from above, appeared publicly 
 in Jerusalem, and in the very temple, and testified 
 the Resurrection of Christ, even before those who 
 had murdered him. What now do the chief priests 
 do ? They seize upon the apostles, they threaten 
 them, they beat them, they scourge them, and all 
 to slop their mouths, insisting that they should say 
 no more of the matter. But why did they not, 
 when they had the disciples in their power, charge 
 them directly with their notorious cheat in stealing 
 tlTe body, and expose them to the people as impos- 
 tors ? This had been much more to their purpose 
 than all their menaces and ill usage, and would more 
 effectually have undeceived the people ; but of this 
 not one word is said ; they try to murder them, 
 cuter into combinations to assassinate them, prevail 
 with Herod to put one of them to death, but not so 
 much as a charge against them of any fraud in the 
 Resurrection ; their orator Tertullus, who could not 
 have missed so fine a topic of declamation, had 
 ' re been but a suspicion to support it, is quite 
 ^ilmt on this head, and is content to flourish on the 
 common-place of sedition and heresy, profaning the 
 temple, and the like, very trifles to his cause, in 
 comparison to the other accusation, had there been 
 any ground to make use of it ; and yet as it happens, 
 we are sure the very question of the Resurrection 
 canae under debate ; for Festus tells king Agrippa, 
 that the Jews had certain questions against Paul, 
 of one Jesus which was dead, whom Paul affirmed 
 to be alive. After this, Agrippa hears Paul himself, 
 and had he suspected, much less had he been con- 
 / d that there was a cheat in the Resurrection, 
 
THE WITNESSES. 407 
 
 he would hardly have said to Paul at the end of* 
 the conference, Almost thou, persuadest me to be a 
 Christian. 
 
 But let us see what the council and senate of the 
 children of Israel thought of this matter in the most 
 solemn and serious deliberation they ever had about 
 it : not long after the Resurrection the apostles were 
 taken ; the high-priest thought the matter of tha* 
 weight, that he summoned the council and senate* 
 of the children of Israel ; the apostles are brou< 
 before them, and make their defence ; part of their 
 defence is in these words, The God of our fathers, 
 raised up Jesus, ivhom ye sleiv and hanged on a tret. 
 The defence was indeed a heavy charge upon the 
 senate, and in the warmth of their anger, their first 
 resolution was to slay them all ; but Gamaliel, one 
 of the council, stood up, and tofcl them that the 
 matter deserved more consideration, he recoimted 
 to them the history of several impostors who had 
 perished, and concluded with respect to the case of 
 the apostles then before them : If this work be of 
 men, it will come to nought, but if it be of God, ye 
 cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found to Ji^ht 
 against God. The council agreed to this advice, 
 and after some ill treatment the apostles were dis- 
 charged. I ask now, and let any man of common 
 sense answer : could Gamaliel possibly have given 
 this advice, and supposed that the hand of God might 
 be with the apostles, if he had known that there was 
 a cheat discovered in the Resurrection of Jesiia? 
 Could the whole senate have followed this advice, 
 had they believed die discovery of the cheat ? Was 
 there not among them one man wise enough to say, 
 how can you suppose God to have any thing to do 
 
408 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 in this affair, when the Resurrection of Jesus, upon 
 which all depends, was a notorious cheat, and 
 manifestly proved to be so? I should but lessen 
 the weight of this authority by saying more, and 
 therefore I will rest here, and give way to the gen- 
 tleman to go on with his accusation. 
 
 Mr. A. My lord, before I proceed any further, 
 I beg leave to say a few words in reply to what the 
 gentleman has offered on this head. 
 
 The gentleman thinks that the detection in the 
 case of Lazarus ought to have made the Jews quite 
 unconcerned in the case of Jesus, and secure as to 
 the event of his own Resurrection. He says very 
 true, supposing their care had been for themselves ; 
 but governors have another care upon their hands, 
 the care of their people ; i.nd'it is not enough for 
 them to guard against being imposed on themselves, 
 they must be watchful to guard the multitude against 
 frauds and deceits ; the chief priests were satisfied 
 indeed of the fraud in the case of Lazarus, yet they 
 saw the people deceived by it ; and for this reason, 
 and not for their own satisfaction, they used the 
 caution in the case of the Resurrection of Jesus, 
 which T before laid before you ; in so doing they 
 are well justified, and the inconsistency charged on 
 the other side, between their opinion of Jesus, and 
 their fear of being imposed on by his pretended 
 Resurrection, is fully answered. 
 
 The next observation relates to the seal of the 
 sepulchre. The gentleman thinks the seal was used 
 as a check upon the Roman soldiers ; but what 
 reason had the Jews to suspect them ? they were 
 not disciples of Jesus, they were servants of the 
 Roman governor, and employed in the service of 
 
THE WITNESSES. 409 
 
 the Jews : and I leave it to the court to jndge, 
 whether the Jews set the seal to guard against their 
 friends or their enemies ; but if the seals were really 
 used against the guards, then the breaking of the 
 seals is a proof that the guards were corrupted ; 
 and if so, it is easy to conceive how the body was 
 removed. 
 
 As to the disciples, the gentleman observes, that 
 the part allotted them in the management of the 
 Resurrection supposes an unaccountable change in 
 their character ; it will not be long before the gen- 
 tleman will have occasion for as great a change in 
 their character ; for these weak men you will find 
 soon employed in converting the world, and sent to 
 appear before kings and princes in the name of their 
 master ; soon you will see them grow wise and 
 powerful, and every way qualified for their extensive 
 and important business. The only difference be- 
 tween me and the gentleman oh the other side will 
 be found to be this, that I date this change a little 
 earlier than he does ; a small matter surely, to 
 determine the right of this controversy. 
 
 The last observation relates to king Agnppa's 
 complaisance to Paul, and Gamaliel's advice. I 
 cannot answer for Agrippa's meaning, but certainly 
 he meant but little ; and if this matter is to be died 
 by his opinion, we know that he never did turn 
 Christian. As for Gamaliel, it is probable that he 
 saw great numbers of the people engaged zealously 
 in favour of the apostles, and might think it prudent 
 to pafes the matter over in silence, and not to come 
 to extremities ; this is a common case in all govern- 
 ments, the multitude and their leaders often escape 
 punishment, not because they do not deserve it, but 
 
 (18.) 3 p 
 
410 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 because it is not in some circumstances prudent to 
 exact^it. 
 
 I pass over these things lightly, because the next 
 article contains the great, to us indeed who live at 
 this distance, the only great question ; for whatever 
 reason the Jews had to believe the Resurrection, it 
 is nothing to us, unless the story has been conveyed 
 to us upon such evidence as is sufficient to support 
 the weight laid on it. 
 
 My lord, we are now to enter upon the last and 
 main article of this case ; the nature of the evidence 
 ujfcm which the credit of the Resurrection stands. 
 Before I enquire into the qualifications of the par- 
 ticular witnesses whose words we are desired to 
 take in this case ; T would ask, why this evidence, 
 which manifestly relates to the most essential point 
 of Christianity, was not put beyond all exception ? 
 Many of the miracles of Christ are said to be done 
 in the streets, nay, even in the temple, under the 
 observation of all the world ; but the like is not so 
 much as pretended as to this ; nay, we have it upon 
 the confession of Peter, the ringleader of the apostles, 
 that Christ appeared not unto all the people, but 
 unlo witnesses chosen before God. Why picking 
 and calling of witnesses in this case more than in 
 any other ? Does it not import some suspicion, 
 raise some jealousy that this case would not bear 
 the public light ? 
 
 I would ask more particularly, why did not Jesus 
 after his Resurrection appear openly to the chiet 
 priests and rulers of the Jews? Since his commis- 
 sion related to them in an especial manner, why 
 were not his credentials laid before them ? The 
 Resurrection is acknowledged to be the chief proof 
 
THE WITNESSES. 411 
 
 of his mission, why then was it concealed from those 
 who were more than all others concerned in the 
 event of his mission ? Suppose an ambassador from 
 some foreign .prince should come into England, 
 make his public entry through the city, pay and 
 receive visits, and at last refuse to show any letters 
 of credence, or to wait on the king, what would you 
 think of him ? Whatever you would think in that 
 case you must think in this, for there is no difference 
 between them. 
 
 But we must take the evidence as it is ; it was 
 thought proper in this case to have select, chosen 
 witnesses ; and we must now consider who they 
 were, and what reason we have to take their word. 
 
 The first witness was an angel, or angels ; they 
 appeared like men to some women who went early to 
 the sepulchre ; if they appeared like men, upon what 
 ground are we to take them for angels ? the women 
 saw men, and therefore they can witness only t 
 the seeing of men ; but I suppose it is the women's 
 judgment, and not their evidence, that we are to 
 follow in this case. Here then we have a story of 
 one apparition to support the credit of another ap- 
 parition ; and the first apparition hath not so much 
 as the evidence of the women to support it, but is 
 grounded on their superstition, ignorance, and fear ; 
 every country can afford an hundred instances of 
 this kind ; and there is this common to them all, 
 that as learning and common sense prevail in any 
 country, they die away, and are no more heard of. 
 
 The next witnesses are the women themselves ; 
 the wisest men can hardly guard themselves against 
 the fears of superstition, poor silly women therefore 
 in this case must needs be unexceptionable ..witnesses, 
 
412 THE TK1AL OF 
 
 and fit to be admitted into the number of the chosen 
 witnesses to attest this fact. One part of the ac- 
 count given of them is very rational, that they were 
 surprised and frightened beyond measure ; and I 
 leave it to your lordship and the court to judge 
 how well qualified they were to give a just relation 
 of what passed. 
 
 After this, Jesus appears to two of his disciples 
 as they were upon a journey; he joins them, and 
 introduces a discourse about himself, and spent 
 much time, till it began to grow dark, in expound- 
 ing the prophecies relating to the Death and Resur- 
 rection of the Messias ; all this while the disciples 
 knew him not ; but then going into an house to 
 lodge together, at supper he broke bread, and 
 gave it to them ; immediately they knew him, 
 immediately he vanished ; here then are two wit- 
 nesses more, but what will you call them ? Eye- 
 witnesses? Why, their eyes were open and they 
 had their senses when he reasoned with them, and 
 they knew him not; so far therefore they are wit- 
 nesses that it was not he ; tell us therefore upon 
 what account you reject the evidence of their sense 
 before the breaking of bread, and insist on it after- 
 wards ? And why did Jesus vanish as soon as 
 known ? which has more of the air of an apparition 
 than of the appearance of a real man restored to 
 life. 
 
 Cleopas, who was one of these two disriples, finds 
 out the apostles, to make the report of what had 
 passed to them ; no sooner was the story told, but 
 Jesus appears among them ; they were all frightened 
 and confounded, and thought they saw a spectre ; 
 he rebukes them for infidelity, and their slowness in 
 
THE WITNESSES. 413 
 
 believing the prophecies of his Resurrection ; and 
 though he refused before to let the women touch 
 him (a circumstance which I ought not to have 
 omitted) yet now he invites the apostles to handle 
 him, to examine his hands and feet, and search the 
 wounds of the cross. But what body was it they 
 examined ? the same that came in when the doors 
 were shut, the same that vanished from the two 
 disciples, the same that the women might not touch ; ' 
 in a word, a body quite different from a human 
 trody, which we know cannot pass through walls, 
 or appear or disappear at pleasure. What theti 
 could their hands or eves inform them of in this 
 case? Besides, is it credible that God should raise 
 a body imperfectly, with the very wounds in it of 
 which it died ? Or if the wounds were such as 
 destroyed the body before, how could a natural 
 body subsist with them afterwards ? 
 
 There are more appearances of Jesus recorded, 
 but so much of the same kind, so liable to the same 
 ciifficulties and objections, that I will not trouble 
 your lordship and the court with a distinct enume- 
 ration of them ; if the gentleman on the other side 
 finds any advantage in any of them more than in 
 these mentioned, J shall have an op?:.; . to 
 
 consider .them in my reply. 
 
 It may seem surprising to you perhaps that -i 
 matter of this moment was trusted upon such evi- 
 dence as tins ; but it will be still more surprising to 
 consider, that the several nations who received the 
 gospel, and submitted to the faith of- this article, 
 had not even this evidence ; for what people or 
 nation had the evidence of the angels, the women, 
 or even of a'i the apostles ? so far from it, that every 
 
414 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 country had its single apostle, and receded the faith 
 upon the credit of his single evidence ; we have 
 followed our ancestors without enquiry, and if yon 
 examine the thing to the bottom, our belief was 
 originally built upon the word of one man. 
 
 I shall trouble you, sir, but with one observation 
 more, which is this ; that although in common life 
 we act in a thousand instances upon the faith and 
 credit of human testimony, yet the reason for so 
 doing is not the same in the case before us ; in 
 common affairs, where nothing is asserted but what 
 improbable and possible, and according to the usual 
 course of nature, a reasonable degree of evidence 
 ought to determine every man ; for the very proba- 
 bility or possibility of the thing is a support to the 
 evidence, and in such cases we have no doubt but 
 a man's senses qualify him to be a witness ; but 
 when the thing testified is contrary to the order of 
 nature, and, at first sight at least impossible, what 
 evidence can be sufficient to overturn the constant 
 evidence of nature, which she gives us in the constant 
 and regular method of her operations? If a man 
 tells me he has been in France, I ought to give a 
 reason for not believing him ; but if he tells me he 
 comes from the grave, what reason can he give why 
 I should believe him ? In the case before us, since 
 the body, raised from the grave, differed from com- 
 mon natural bodies, as we have before seen, how 
 can I be assu •■ d that the apostles' senses qualified 
 them to judge at all of this body, whether it was 
 the same or not the same which was buried ; they 
 handled the body, which yet could pass through 
 doors and walls ; they saw it, and sometimes knew 
 it, at other times knew it not ; in a word, it seems 
 
THE WITNESSES. 4\r> 
 
 to be a case exempt from human evidence. Men 
 have limited senses, and a limited reason ; when 
 they act within their limits we may give credit to 
 them, but when they talk of things removed beyond 
 the reach of their senses and reason, we must quit 
 our own if we believe theirs. 
 
 Mr. B. My lord, in answering the objection* 
 under this head, I shall find myself obliged to change 
 the order in which the gentleman thought proper to ' 
 place them ; he began with complaining that Christ 
 did not appear publicly to the Jews after his Resur- 
 rection, and especially to the chief priests and rulers, 
 and seemed to argue as if such evidence would have 
 put the matter in question out of all doubt ; but 
 he concluded with an observation to prove that no 
 evidence in this case can be sufficient ; that a 
 Resurrection is a thing in nature impossible, at 
 least, impossible to be proved to the satisfaction of 
 a rational enquirer. If this be the case, why does 
 he require more evidence, since none can be suffi- 
 cient ? Or to what purpose is it to vindicate the 
 particular evidence of the Resurrection of Christ, so 
 long as this general prejudice, that a Resurrection 
 is incapable of being proved, remains unremoved ? 
 I am under a necessity therefore to consider this 
 observation in the first place, that it may not lie as 
 a dead weight upon all I have to offer in support 
 of the evidence of Christ's Resurrection. 
 
 The gentleman allows it to be reasonable in many 
 cases to act upon the testimony and credit of others, 
 but he thinks this should be confined to such cases 
 where the thing testified is probable, possible, and 
 according to the usual course of nature. The 
 gentleman does not, I suppose, pretend to know 
 
410 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 the extent of all natural possibilities, much less wiF 
 he suppose them to be generally known ; and there 
 fore his meaning- must be, that the testimony ol 
 witnesses is be received only in cases which appear 
 to us to be possible ; in any other sense we can have 
 no dispute ; for mere impossibilities, which can never 
 exist, can never he proved ; taking the observation 
 therefore in this sense, the proposition is this ; that 
 the testimony of others ought not to be admitted but 
 in such matters as appear probable, at least possible 
 to our conceptions : for instance ; a man who lives 
 *in a warm climate, and never saw ice, ought upon 
 no evidence to believe that rivers freeze and grow 
 hard in cold countries ; for it is improbable, con- 
 trary to the usual course of nature, and impossible 
 according to his notion of things; and yet we all 
 know that this is a plain, manifest case, discernible 
 by the senses of men, of which therefore they are 
 qualified to be good witnesses. An hundred such 
 instances might be named, but it is needless ; for 
 surely nothing is more apparently absurd, than 
 to make one man's ability in discerning, and his 
 veracity in reporting plain facts, depend upon the 
 skill or ignorance of the hearer. And what has 
 the gentleman said upon this occasion against the 
 Resurrection, more than any man who never saw 
 ice might say against a hundred honest witnesses, 
 who assert that water turns to ice in cold climates ? 
 It is very true that men do not so easily believe, 
 upon testimony of others, things which to them seem 
 improbable or impossible ; but the reason is not 
 because the thing itself admits of no evidence, but 
 because the hearer's pre-conceived opinion outweigh* 
 the credit of the reporter, and makes his veracity Uy 
 
THE WITNESSES. 417 
 
 be called in question ; for instance, it is natural for 
 a stone to roll down-hill, it is unnatural for it to roll 
 up-hill ; but a stone moving up-hill is as much the 
 object of sense as a stone moving down-hill ; and 
 all men in their senses are as capable of seeing, and 
 judging, and reporting the fact in one case as in the 
 other. Should a man then tell you that he saw a 
 stone go up-hill of its own accord, you might ques- , 
 tion his veracity, but you could not say the thing 
 admitted no evidence because it was contrary to the 
 law and usual course of nature ; for the law of 
 nature formed to yourself from your own experience 
 and reasoning, is quite independant of the matter of 
 fact which the man testifies ; and whenever you see 
 facts yourself which contradict your notions of the 
 law of nature, you admit the faets because you 
 believe yourself; when you do not admit like facts 
 upon the evidence of others, it is because you do 
 not believe them, and not because the facts in their 
 own nature exclude all evidence. 
 
 Suppose a man should tell you that he was come 
 from the dead, you would be apt to suspect his 
 evidence ; but what would you suspect ? that he 
 was not alive, when you heard him, saw him, felt 
 him, and conversed with him ? You could not 
 suspect this without giving up all your senses, and 
 acting in this case as you act in no other ; here 
 then you would question whether the man had ever 
 been dead ; but would you say that it is incapable 
 of being made plain by human testimony that this 
 or that man died a year ago? It cannot be said. 
 Evidence in this case is admitted in all courts per- 
 petually. 
 
 Consider it the other way. Suppose you saw a 
 (180 3 c 
 
418 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 man publicly executed, his body afterwards wounded 
 by the executioner, and carried and laid m the grave ; 
 fhat after this you should be told, that the man was 
 come to life again ; what would you suspect in this 
 case? not that the man had never been dead, for 
 that you saw yourself, but you would suspect 
 whether he was now alive : but would you say this 
 case excluded all human testimony, and that men 
 could not possibly discern whether one with whom 
 they conversed familiarly was alive or no ? Upon 
 wjhat ground could you say this ? A man rising 
 from the grave is an object of sense, and can gn e 
 the same evidence of his being alive as any other 
 man in the world can give. So that a Resurrection 
 considered only as a fact to be proved by evidence, 
 is a plain case ; it requires no greater ability in the 
 witnesses, than that they be able to distinguish 
 between a man dead and a man alive ; a point, in 
 which I believe every man living thinks himself u 
 judge. 
 
 I do allow that this case, and others of like nature, 
 require more evidence to give them credit than or- 
 dinary cases do ; you may therefore require more 
 evidence in these than in other cases ; but it is 
 absurd to say that such cases admit no evidence, 
 when the things in question are manifestly objects 
 of sense. 
 
 I allow further, that the gentleman has rightly 
 stated the difficulty upon the foot of common pre- 
 judice, and that it arises from hence that such cases 
 appear to be contrary to the course of nature ; but 
 I desire him to consider what this course of nature 
 is ; every man, from the lowest countryman to the 
 highest philosopher, frames to himself from his 
 
THE WITNESSES. 419 
 
 experience and observation a notion of a course o{ 
 nature, and is ready to say of every thing reported 
 to him that contradicts his experience, that it is 
 contrary to nature ; but will the gentleman say that 
 every thing is impossible, or even impro'>:iMe, that 
 contradicts the notion which men frame to them- 
 selves of the course of nature? I think he will not 
 say it ; and if he will, he must say that water can 
 never freeze, for it is absolutely inconsistent with the 
 notion which men have of the course of nature who 
 live in the warm climates : and hence it appears, that 
 when men talk of the course of nature, they really 
 talk of their own prejudice and imaginations, and 
 that sense and reason are not so much concerned m 
 the case as the gentleman imagines. For I ask, is 
 it from the evidence of sense, or the evidence of 
 reason that people of warm climates think it con- 
 trary to nature that water should grow solid and 
 become ice ? As for sense, they see indeed that 
 water with them is always liquid, but none of their 
 senses tell them that it can never grow solid ; as 
 for reason, it can never so inform them, for right 
 reason can never contradict the truth of things. 
 Our senses then inform us rightly what the usual 
 course of things is ; but when we conclude that 
 things cannot be otherwise, we out-run the informa- 
 tion of our senses, and the conclusion stands upon 
 prejudice, and not upon reason ; and yet such con- 
 clusions form what is generally called the course of 
 nature ; and when men upon proper evidence and 
 information admit tilings contrary to this pre-sup- 
 posed course, of nature, they do not, as the gentleman 
 expresses it, quit their own sense and reason, but in 
 truth, they quit their own mistakes and prejudices. 
 
4-20 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 In the case before us, the case of the Resurrec- 
 tion, the great difficulty arises from the like prejudice. 
 We all know by experience that all men die, and 
 rise up more ; therefore we conclude, that for a 
 dead man to rise to life again, is contrary to the 
 course of nature ; and certainly it is contrary to the 
 uniform and settled course of things ; but if we 
 argue from hence, that it is contrary and repugnant 
 to the real laws of nature, and absolutely impossible 
 on that account, we argue without any foundation 
 to support us, either from our senses or our reason. 
 * We cannot learn from our eyes, or feeling, or any 
 other sense, that it is impossible for a dead body to 
 live again ; if we learn it at all, it must be from our 
 reason ; and yet what one maxim of reason is con- 
 tradicted by the supposition of a Resurrection ? 
 For my own part, when I consider how I live ; 
 that all the animal motions necessary to my. life 
 are independent of my will; that my heart beats 
 without my consent, and without'my direction ; that 
 digestion and nutrition are performed by methods to 
 which I am not conscious : that mv blood moves 
 in a perpetual round, which is contrary to all known 
 laws of motion, I cannot but think that the preserva- 
 tion of my life, in every moment of it, is as great an 
 act of power as is necessary to raise a dead man to 
 life ; and whoever so far reflects upon his own bein:; 
 as to acknowledge that he owes it to a superior 
 power, must needs think that the same power, 
 which gave life to senseless matter at first, and set 
 all the springs and movements a-going at the be- 
 ginning, can restore to life a dead body ; for surely 
 it is not a greater thir.g to give life to a body 6n 
 dead than to a body that never was alive, 
 
THE WITNESSES. 421 
 
 In the next place must be considered the difficul- 
 ties which the gentleman has laid before you with 
 regard to the nature of Christ's body after the Re- 
 surrection ; he has produced some passages which 
 he thinks imply that the body was not a real natural 
 body, but a mere phantom or apparition ; and thence 
 concludes, that there being no real object of sense, 
 there can be no evidence in the case. 
 
 Presumptions are of no weight against positive 
 evidence, and every account of the Resurrection 
 assures us that the body of Christ was seen, felt, 
 and handled by many persons, who were called up- 
 on by Christ so to do, that they might be assured 
 that he had flesh and bones, and was not a mere 
 spectre, as they in their first surprise imagined him 
 to be ; it is impossible that they who give this ac- 
 count should mean by any thing they report to 
 imply that he had no real body ; it is certain then, 
 that when the gentleman makes use of what thev 
 say to this purpose, he uses their sayings contrary 
 to their meaning ; for it is not pretended that they 
 say that Christ had not a real human body after the 
 Resurrection ; nor is it pretended they had any such 
 thought, except only upon the first surprise of see- 
 ing him, and before they had examined him with 
 their eyes and hands ; but something they have said, 
 which the gentleman, according to his notions of 
 philosophy, thinks implies that the body was not 
 real. To clear this point therefore, I must lav 
 before you the passages referred to, and consider 
 how justly the gentleman reasons from them. 
 
 The first passage relates to Mary Magdalen, who 
 the first time she saw Christ, was going to embrace 
 his feet, as thfe custom of the country was ; Christ 
 
422 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 says to her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended 
 to my Father ; but go lo my brethren, and tell them, 
 $'C. Hence the gentleman concludes that Christ's 
 body was not e ich an one as would bear the touch ; 
 but how does he infer this? Is it from these words, 
 Touch me not ? It cannot be ; for thousands say it 
 every day, without giving the least suspicion that 
 their bodies are not capable of being touched ; the 
 conclusion then must be built on these other words, 
 for 1 am not yet ascended to my Father. But what 
 have these words to do with the reality of his body ? 
 It^might be real or not real for any thing that is 
 here said ; there is a difficulty in these words, and 
 it may be hard to give the true sense of them ; but 
 there is no difficulty in seeing that they have no 
 relation to the nature of Christ's body, for of his 
 body nothing is said ; the natural sense of the place, 
 as I collect by comparing this passage with Matt, 
 xxviii. 9. is this : Mary Magdalen, upon seeing 
 Jesus, fell at his feet, and laid hold of them, and 
 held them, as if she meant never to let them go ; 
 Christ said to her, * touch me not, or hang not about 
 me now, you will have other opportunities of seeing 
 me, for I go not yet to my Father: lose no time then, 
 but go quickly with my message to my brethren.' I 
 am not concerned to support this particular inter- 
 pretation of the passage, it is sufficient to my pur- 
 pose to show that the words cannot possibly relate 
 to the nature of Christ's body one way or other. 
 
 The next passage relates to Christ's joining two 
 of his disciples upon the road, and conversing with 
 them without being known by them ; it grew dark, 
 they pressed him to stay with them that night; he 
 went in with thetD, broke bread, acd blessed it, and 
 
THE WITNESSES. 423 
 
 gave it thern, and then they knew him, and imme- 
 diately he disappeared. 
 
 The circumstance of disappearing shall be con- 
 sidered under the next head, with other objections; 
 of the like kin^l ; at present I shall only examine 
 the other parts of this story, and enquire whether 
 they afford any ground to conclude that the body 
 of Christ was not a real one. Had this piece of 
 history been related of any other person, I think no 
 such suspicion could have arisen ; for what is there 
 unnatural or uncommon in this account ? Two men 
 meet an acquaintance, whom they thought dead : 
 they converse with him for some time without sus- 
 pecting who he was ; the very persuasion they were 
 under that he was dead contributed greatly to their 
 not knowing him ; besides, he appeared in a habit 
 and form different from what h*e used when he 
 conversed with them ; appeared to them on a 
 journey, and walking with them side by side, ia 
 which situation no one of the company has a fail 
 view of another ; afterwards, when they were & 
 supper together, and lights brought in, they plainly 
 discerned who he was. Upon this occasion the 
 gentleman asks what sort of witnesses these are ? 
 Eye-witnesses ? No ; before supper they were eye- 
 witnesses, says the gentleman, that the person whom 
 they saw was not Christ ; and then he demands a 
 reason for our rejecting the evidence of their sense 
 when they did not know Christ, and insisting on it 
 when they did. 
 
 It is no uncommon thing for men to catch them- 
 selves and others by such notable acute questions, 
 and to be led by the sprightliness of their imagina- 
 tion out of the road of truth and common sense. I 
 
424 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 beg leave to tell the gentleman a short story, and 
 then to ask him his own question. A certain gen 
 tlemaft who had been some years abroad, happened 
 in his return to England through Paris to meet his 
 own sister there. She not expecting to see him 
 there, nor he to see her, they conversed together 
 with other company at a public house for great part 
 of a day without knowing each other. At last the 
 lady began to show great signs of disorder ; her 
 colour came and went, and the eyes of the company 
 were drawn towards her, and then she cried out, 
 Oil my brother ! and was hardly held from fainting 
 Suppose now this lady were to depose upon oath 
 in a court of justice that she saw her brother at 
 Paris, I would ask the gentleman whether he would 
 object to the evidence, and say that she was as good 
 an eye-witness that her brother was not there as that 
 he was, and demand of the court why they rejected 
 the evidence of her senses when she did not know 
 her brother, and were ready to believe it when she 
 did ? When the question is answered in this case, 
 I desire only to have the benefit of it in the case 
 now before you. But if you shall be of opinion that 
 there was some extraordinary power used on this 
 occasion, and incline to think that the expression 
 (their eyes were holden) imports as much ; then the 
 case will fall under the next article. In which 
 
 We are to consider Christ's vanishing out of sight, 
 his coming in and going out when the doors were 
 shut, and such like passages ; which, as they fall 
 under one consideration, so 1 shall speak to them 
 together. 
 
 But it is necessary first to see what the apostles 
 aflTrm distinctly in their accounts of these facts ; for 
 
THE WITNESSES. 425 
 
 I think more has been said for them than ever they 
 said or intended to say for themselves. In one 
 place it is said, he vanished out of their sight, which 
 translation is corrected in the margin of our Bibles 
 thus, he ceased to be seen of them. And the original 
 imports no more. 
 
 It is said in another place, that the disciples being 
 together, and the doors shut, Jesus came and stood 
 ill the midst of them ; how he came is not said, 
 much less is it said that he came through the door, 
 or the key-hole ; and for any thing that is said to 
 the contrary, he might come in at the door, though 
 the disciples saw not the door open, nor him, till 
 ne was in the midst of them ; but the gentleman 
 thinks these passages prove that the disciples 
 saw no real body, but an apparition. I am afraid 
 that the gentleman, after all his contempt of appa- 
 ritions, and the superstition on which they are 
 founded, is fallen into the snare himself, and is 
 arguing upon no better principles than the common 
 notions which the vulgar have of apparitions; why 
 else does he imagine these passages to be incon- 
 sistent with the reality of Christ's body ? Is there 
 no way for a real body to disappear ? Try the ex- 
 periment now, do but put out the candles, we shall 
 all disappear ; if a man falls asleep in the day-time 
 all things disappear to him, his senses are all locked 
 up, and yet all things about him continue to be real, 
 and his senses continue perfect ; as shutting out all 
 rays of light would make all things disappear, so 
 intercepting the rays of light from any particular 
 body would make that disappear ; perhaps some- 
 thing like this was the case, or perhaps something 
 else, of which we know nothing ; but be the case 
 
 (18.) 3 H 
 
420 TUL TRIAL OF 
 
 what it will, the gentleman's conclusion is founded 
 on no principle of true philosophy ; for it does not 
 follow that a body is not real because I lose sight 
 of it suddenly. I shall be told perhaps that this 
 way of accounting- for the passage is as wonderful, 
 and as much out of the common course of things as 
 the other ; perhaps it is so, and what then ? Surely 
 the gentleman does not expect, that in order to prove 
 the reality of the greatest miracle that ever was, I 
 should show that there was nothing miraculous in 
 it, but that every thing happened according to the 
 ordinary course of things ? My only concern is to 
 show, that these passages do not infer that the body 
 <»f Christ after the Resurrection was no real body. 
 I wonder the gentleman did not carry his argument 
 a little further, and prove that Christ before his 
 death had no real body ; for we read that when 
 the multitude would have thrown him down a pre- 
 cipice, he went through the midst of them unseen. 
 Now nothing happened after his Resurrection more 
 unaccountable than this that happened before it ; 
 and if the argument be good at all, it will be good 
 to prove that there never was such a man as Jesus 
 in the world. Perhaps the gentleman may think 
 this a little too much to prove ; and if he does, 1 
 hope he will quit the argument in one case as well 
 as in the other, for difference there is none. 
 
 Hitherto we have been called upon to prove the 
 reality of Christ's body, and that it was the sain- 
 after the Resurrection that it was before ; but the 
 next objection complains, that the body was too 
 much the same with that which was buried, for the 
 gentleman thinks that it had the same mortal wound i 
 open and uncured of which he died ; his observation 
 
THE WITNESSES. 427 
 
 |s grounded upon the words which Christ uses to 
 Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my 
 hands ; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into 
 my side. Is it here affirmed that Thomas did ac- 
 tually put his hand into his side, or so much as see 
 his wounds fresh and bleeding? Nothing like it ; 
 hut it is supposed from the words of Christ; for 
 if he had no wounds, he would not have invited 
 Thomas to probe them. Now the meaning of Christ 
 will best appear by an account of the occasion he 
 had to use this speech. He had appeared to his 
 disciples in the absence of Thomas, and shown them 
 his hands and feet, which still had the marks of his 
 crucifixion : the disciples report this to Thomas ; he 
 thought the thing impossible, and expressed his un- 
 belief, as men are apt to do when they are positive 
 in a very extravagant manner : you talk, says he, 
 of the prints of the nails in his hands and feet ; for 
 my part, I will never believe this thing, except J 
 shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put 
 my fino'er into the print of the nails, and thrust my 
 hand into his side. Now in the first place, here is 
 nothing said of open wounds, Thomas talks only of 
 putting his finger into the print, that is, the scar of 
 the nails, and of thrusting his hand into his side. 
 And in common speech, to thrust a hand into any 
 one's side, does not signify to thrust it through the 
 side into the bowels. Upon this interpretation of 
 the words, which is a plain and natural one, the 
 gentleman's objection is quite gone. But suppose 
 Thomas to mean what the gentleman means, in that 
 case the words of Christ are manifestly a severe 
 reproach to him for his infidelity ; here, says Christ, 
 are my hands and my side, take the satisfaction you 
 
428 THfi TRIAL OF 
 
 require, thrust your (infers into my hand, your hand 
 into my side ; repeating- to him his own words, and 
 calling- him to his own conditions ; which, to a man 
 beginning- to see his extravagance, is of all the re- 
 bukes the severest. Such forms of speech are used 
 on many occasions, and are never understood to 
 import that the thing proposed is proper, or always 
 practicable. When the Grecian women reproached 
 their sons with cowardice, and called to them afe 
 they were flying from the enemy, to come and hide 
 themselves once more, like children as they were, 
 in* their mothers' wombs ; he would have been 
 ridiculous who had asked the question, whether 
 the women really thought that they could take their 
 sons into their wombs again ? 
 
 I have now gone through the objections which 
 were necessarily to be removed, before I could state 
 the evidence in this case ; I am sensible I have taken 
 up too much of your time, but I have this to say in 
 my excuse, that objections built on popular notions 
 and prejudices, arc easily conveyed to the mind in 
 few words, and so conveyed make strong impres- 
 sions ; but whosoever answers the objections, must 
 encounter all the notions to which they are allied, 
 and to which they owe their strength ; and it is well 
 if with many words he can find admittance. 
 
 I come now to consider the evidence on which 
 our belief of the Resurrection stands : and here I 
 am stopt again ; a general exception is taken to the 
 evidence, that it is imperfect, unfair ; and a question 
 is asked, why did not Christ appear publicly to all 
 the people, especially to the magistrates ? why were 
 some witnesses culled and chosen out, and others 
 excluded? 
 
THE WITNESSES. 423 
 
 It may oe sufficient perhaps to say, that where 
 there are witnesses enough, no judge, no jury com- 
 plains for want of more; and therefore, if the wit- 
 nesses we have are sufficient, it is no objection that 
 we have not others, and more. If three credible 
 men attest a will, which are as many as the lav. 
 requires, would any body ask why all the town were 
 not called to set their hands ? But why were these 
 witnesses culled and chosen out ? "Why ? for this 
 reason, that they might be good ones. Does not 
 every wise man choose proper witnesses to his deed 
 and to his will ? And does not a good choice ot 
 witnesses give strength to every deed ? How comes 
 it to pass then that the very thing which shuts out 
 all suspicion in other cases, should in this case only 
 be of all others the most suspicious thing itself? 
 
 What reason there is to make amy complaints on 
 the behalf of the Jews, may be judged in part from 
 what has already appeared ; Christ suffered openly 
 in their sight, and they were so well apprized of his 
 prediction that he should rise again, that they set a 
 guard on his sepulchre, and from these guards 
 they learned the truth ; every soldier was to them a 
 witness of the Resurrection of their own chusing ; 
 after this they had not one apostle (which the gen- 
 tleman observes was the case of other people) but 
 all the apostles, and many other witnesses with them, 
 and in their power; the apostles testified the Resur- 
 rection to them, not only to the people, but to the 
 elders of Israel assembled in senate ; to support 
 their evidence they were enabled to work, and dicl 
 work miracles openly in the name of Christ ; these 
 people therefore have the least reason to complain, 
 and' had oi all others the fullest evidence, and m 
 
430 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 some respects such as none but themselves could 
 have, for they only were keepers of the sepulchre. 
 I believe if the gentleman was to choose an evidence 
 to his own satisfaction in the like cuse, he would 
 desire no more than to keep the sepulchre with a 
 sufficient number of guards. 
 
 But the argument goes further. It is said that 
 Jesus was sent with a special commission to the 
 Jews that he was their Messias ; and as his Resur- 
 rection was his main credential, he ought to have 
 appeared publicly to the rulers of the Jews after his 
 Insurrection ; that in doing otherwise he acted like 
 an ambassador pretending authority from his prince, 
 but refusing to show his letters of credence. 
 
 I was afraid when I suffered myseif to be drawn 
 into this argument that 1 should be led into matters 
 fitter to be decided by men of another profession 
 than by lawyers ; but since there is no help now, I 
 will lay before you what appears to me to be the 
 natural and plain account of this matter, leaving it 
 to others who are better qualified to give a fuller 
 answer to the objection. 
 
 It appears to me by the accounts we have of 
 Jesus, that he had two distinct offices ; one, as the 
 Messias particularly promised to the Jews ; another, 
 as he was to be the great high-priest of the world ; 
 with respect to the first office he is called the apostle 
 ■:f the Hebrews, the minister of the circumcision, and 
 rays himself, J am not sent hut unto the lost sheep of 
 the house of Israel. Accordingly, when he sent out 
 I is apostles in his lifetime to preach, he expressly 
 forbids them to go to the Gentiles or Samaritans^ 
 but go, says he, to the lost sheep of the house of 
 lyracL Christ continued in the discharge of this 
 
THE WITNESSES. 431 
 
 office during the time of his natural life, till he was 
 finally rejected by the Jews ; and it is observable, 
 that the last time he spoke to the people, according 
 to St. Matthew's account, he solemnly took leave 
 of them, and closed his commission ; he had been 
 long among them publishing glad tidings, but when 
 all his preaching, all his miracles had proved to be 
 in vain, the last thing he did was to denounce the 
 woes they had brought on themselves. The 23d 
 chapter of St. Matthew recites these woes, and at 
 the end of them Christ takes this passionate leave 
 of Jerusalem, ' O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that 
 killest the prophets, and stonest them which are 
 sent to thee; how often would I have gathered thy 
 children together, even as a hen gathereth her 
 chickens under her wings, and ye would not ! Be- 
 hold your house is left unto you clesolate. For I 
 say unto yon, ye shall not see me henceforth, till 
 ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name 
 of the Lord.' It is remarkable that this passage, 
 as recorded by St. Matthew and St. Luke' twice 
 over, is determined by the circumstances to refer 
 to the near approach of his own deaih, and the 
 extreme hatred of the Jews to him ; and therefore 
 those words, Ye shall not see me henceforth, are to 
 be dated from the time of his death, and manifestly 
 point out the end of his particular mission to them. 
 From the making this declaration as it stands in St. 
 Matthew, his discourses are to his disciples, and 
 they chiefly relate to the miserable and wretched 
 condition of the Jews, which was now decreed, and 
 soon to be accomplished ; let me now ask, whether 
 irt this state of things any farther credentials of 
 Christ's commission to the Jews could be demanded 
 
432 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 or expected ? He was rejectee], his commission was 
 determined, am! with it the fate of the nation was 
 determined also ; what use then of more credentials ? 
 As to appearing; to them after his Resurrection, he 
 could not do it consistently with his own prediction, 
 Yc shall see me no more till ye shall say, Bessed is 
 he that comet h in the name of the Lord. The Jews 
 were not in this disposition after the Resurrection, 
 nor are they in it yet. 
 
 The Resurrection was the foundation of Christ's 
 new commission, which extended to all the world ; 
 tjien it was he declared that all power was given 
 unto him in heaven and in earth ; then he gave a 
 new commission to his disciples, not restrained to 
 the house of Israel, but to go and teach all nations. 
 This prerogative the Jews had under this commis- 
 sion, that the gospel was every where first offered 
 to them, but in no other terms than it was offered 
 to the rest of the world. Since then this commis- 
 sion, of which the Resurrection was the foundation, 
 extended to all the world alike ; what ground is 
 fhere to demand special and particular evidence to 
 the Jews ? The emperor and the senate of Rome 
 were a much more considerable part of the world 
 than the chief priests and the synagogue ; why does 
 QOt the gentleman object then that Christ did not 
 show himself to Tiberius and his senate ? And 
 since all men have an equal right in this case, 
 why may not the same demand be made for every 
 country ? nay, for every age ? and then the gentle- 
 man may bring the question nearer home, and ask, 
 why Christ did not appear in England in king 
 George's reign ? There is to my apprehension no- 
 thing more unreasonable than to neglect and despise 
 
THE WITNESSES. 4 
 
 plain and sufficient evidence before us, and to sit 
 down to imagine what kind of evidence would have 
 pleased us, and then to make the want of such 
 evidence au objection to the truth, which yet if well 
 considered would be found to be well established. 
 
 The observation I have made upon the Resurrec- 
 tion of Christ naturally leads to another, which will 
 help to account for the nature of the evidence we 
 have in this great point. As the Resurrection was 
 the opening a new commission, in which all the 
 world had an interest, so the concern naturally was 
 to have a proper evidence to establish this truth, 
 and which should be of equal weight to all : this 
 did not depend upon the satisfaction given to private 
 persons, whether they were magistrates or not magis- 
 trates, but upon the conviction of those whose office 
 it was to be to bear testimony to this truth in the 
 world ; in this sense the apostles were chosen to be 
 witnesses of the Resurrection, because they were 
 chosen to bear testimony to it in the world, and not 
 because th» j y only were admitted to see Christ after 
 his Resurrection ; for the fact is otherwise. The 
 gospel indeed concerned to show the evidence on 
 which the faith of the world was to rest, is very 
 particular in setting forth the ocular demonstration 
 which the apostles had of the Resurrection, and 
 mentions others who saw Christ after his Resurrec- 
 tion only accidentally, and as the thread of the his- 
 tory led to it ; but yet it is certain, there were many 
 others who had this satisfaction as well as the 
 apostles, St. Luke tells us, that when Christ ap- 
 peared to the eleven apostles, there were others 
 with them ; who they were, or how many they 
 were, he says not ; but it appears in the Acts, when 
 
 (19.) 3 I 
 
454 THE TRIAL Ol 
 
 sin apostle was to be chosen in the room of Judas, 
 and the chief qualification required was, that he 
 should be one capable of being a witness of the 
 Resurrection, that there were present a hundred and 
 twenty so qualified. And St. Paul says, that Christ 
 after his rising- was seen by five hundred at once, 
 many of whom were living when he appealed to 
 their evidence : so that the gentleman is mistaken 
 when he imagines that a few only were chosen to 
 see Christ after he came from the grave. The truth 
 *f the case is, that out of those who saw him, some 
 were chosen to bear testimony to the world, and 
 for that reason bad the fullest demonstration of the 
 truth, that they might be the better able to give 
 satisfaction to others ; and what was there in this 
 conduct to complain of? what to raise any jealousy 
 or suspicion ? 
 
 As to the witnesses themselves ; the first the 
 gentleman takes notice of are the angels and the 
 women ; the mention of angels led naturally to 
 apparitions ; and the women were called poor silly 
 women, where there is an entj. of their evidence. 
 But to speak seriously : will the gentleman pretend 
 to prove that there are no intelligent beings between 
 God and man ? or that they are not ministers ol 
 God? or that they were improperly employed in 
 this great and wonderful work, the Resurrection of 
 Christ ? Till some of these points are disproved 
 we may be at rest ; fof the angels were ministers, 
 and not witnesses of the Resurrection. And it is 
 not upon the credit of the poor silly women that we 
 believe angels were concerned, but upon the report 
 of those who wrote the gospels, who deliver it as a 
 
THE WITNESSES. 435 
 
 truth known to themselves, and not merely as a 
 report taken from the women. 
 
 But for the women, what shall I say ? Silly as 
 they were, I hope at least, they had eyes and ears, 
 and could tell what they heard and saw ; in this 
 case they tell no more ; they report that the body 
 was not in the sepulchre ; but so far from reporting 
 the Resurrection, that they did not believe it, and 
 were very anxious to find to what place the body 
 was removed ; further, they were not employed ; for 
 I think the gentleman in another part observes right- 
 ly, that they were hot sent to bear testimony to any 
 people : but suppose them to be witnesses, sup- 
 pose them to be improper ones, yet the evidence of 
 the men surely is not the worse because some 
 women happened to see the same thing which they 
 saw; and if men only must be admitted, of them we 
 have enough to establish this truth. 
 
 •I will not spend your time in enumerating these 
 witnesses, or in setting forth the demonstration they 
 had of the truth which thev report, these things are 
 well known ; if you question their sincerity, they 
 lived miserably and died miserably for the sake of 
 this truth ; and what greater evidence of sincerity 
 can man give or require ; and what is still more, 
 they were not deceived in their expectation by being 
 ill treated ; for he who employed them told them 
 beforehand that the world would hate them, and 
 treat them with contempt and cruelty. 
 
 But leaving these weighty and well-known cir- 
 cumstances to your own reflection, I beg leave to 
 lay before you another evidence, passed over in 
 silence by the gentleman on the other side. He 
 took notice that a Resurrection was so extraordinary 
 
436 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 a thing, thai no human evidence could support 
 it; I am not sure that he is not in the right ; if 
 twenty men were to come into England with such 
 a report from a distant country, perhaps they might 
 not find twenty more here to believe their story ; 
 and I rather think the gentleman may be in the 
 right, because in the present case I see clearly that 
 the credit of the Resurrection of Christ was not 
 trusted to mere human evidence ; to what evidence 
 it was trusted we find by his own declaration : The 
 spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he 
 Shall testify of me ; and ye also (speaking to his 
 apostles) shall bear witness, because ye have been with 
 vie from the beginning'. And therefore though the 
 apostles had conversed with him forty days after 
 his Resurrection, and had received his commission 
 to go tench all nations, yet he expressly forbids 
 them entering upon the work till they should re- 
 ceive powers from above. And St. Peter explains 
 the evidence of the Resurrection in this manner : 
 We (the apostles) are his ivitnesses of these things, 
 and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given 
 to them who obey him. 
 
 Now, what were the powers received by the 
 apostles ? Were they not the powers of wisdom 
 and courage, by which they were enabled to appear 
 before rulers and princes in the name of Christ ? the 
 power of miracles, even of raising the dead to life, 
 by which they convinced the world that God was 
 with them in what they said and did ? With respect 
 to this evidence, St. John says, Jf we receive the 
 witness of men, the witness of God is greater. Add 
 to this, that the apostles had a power to communi- 
 cate these gifts to believers ; can you wonder that 
 
THE WITNESSES. . 437 
 
 (hen believed the reality of those powers of which 
 they were partakers, and became conscious to them- 
 selves? With respect to these communicated powers 
 I suppose St. John speaks, when he says, He that 
 belieceth on the Son of God hath the witness in 
 himself. Appealing not to an inward testimony of 
 the spirit, in the sense of some modern enthusiasts, 
 but to the powers of the spirit, which believers 
 received, and which were seen in the effects that 
 followed. 
 
 It was objected that the apostles separated them- 
 selves to the work of the ministry, and one went 
 into one country, and another to another ; and con- 
 sequently that the belief of the Resurrection was 
 originally received every where upon the testimony 
 of one witness. I will not examine this fact, suppose 
 it to he so; but did this one witness go alone, when 
 he was attended with the powers of heaven? Was 
 not every blind man restored to sight, and every 
 lame man to his feet, a new witness to the truth 
 reported by the first ? Besides, when the people 
 of different countries came to compare notes, and 
 found that they had all received the same account 
 of Christ and of his doctvine, then surely the evi- 
 dence of these distant witnesses thus united, became 
 stronger than if they had told their story together ; 
 for twelve men separately examined form a much 
 stronger proof for the truth of any fact than twelve 
 men agreeing together in one story. 
 
 If the same thing were to happen in our own 
 time ; if one or two were to come into England, 
 and report that a man was raised from the dead, 
 and in consequence of it teach nothing but that we 
 ought to love God and our neighbours ; if to confirm 
 
438 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 their report they should before our eyes cure the 
 blind, the deaf, the lame, and even raise the dead 
 to life ; if endued with all these powers they should 
 live in poverty and distress, and patiently submit to 
 all that scorn, contempt, and malice could contrive 
 to distress them, and at last sacrifice even their lives 
 in justification of the truth of their report; if upon 
 enquiry we should find that all the countries in 
 Europe had received the same account, supported 
 by the same miraculous powers, attested in like 
 manner by the sufferings, and confirmed by the 
 Wood of the witnesses, I would fain know what any 
 reasonable man would do in this case ? would lie 
 despise such evidence ? 1 think he would not ; and 
 whoever thinks otherwise, must say, that a Resur- 
 rection, though in its own nature possible, is yet 
 such a thing in which we ought not to believe either 
 God or man. 
 
 Judge. Have you done, sir? 
 
 Mr. B. Yes, my lord. 
 
 Judge. Go on 3Ir. A. if you have any thing to 
 say in reply. 
 
 Mr. A. My lord, I shall trouble you with very 
 little ; the objections and answers under this head 
 I shall leave to the judgment of the court, and beg 
 leave only to make an observation or two upon the 
 last part of the gentleman's argument. 
 
 And first, with respect to the Bufferings of the 
 apostles and disciples of Jesus, and the argument 
 drawn from thence for the truth of their doctrines 
 and assertions, I beg leave to observe to you, that 
 there is not a false religion or pretence in the world 
 but can produce the same authority, and show many 
 instances of men who have suffered even to death 
 
THE WITNESSES. 439 
 
 for the truth of their several professions. If we 
 consult only modern story, we shall find papists 
 suffering for popery ; protestants for their religion ; 
 and among protestants every sect has had its mar 
 tyrs ; puritans, quakers, fifth-monarchy-men. la 
 Henry the VHIth's time England saw both popish 
 and protestant martyrs ; in queen Mary's reign the 
 rage fell upon protestants ; in queen Elizabeth's 
 papists and puritans were called sometimes, though * 
 rarely, to this trial. In latter times, sometimes 
 churchmen, sometimes dissenters were persecuted ; 
 what must we say then ? All these sufferers had 
 not truth with them, and yet if there be any weight 
 in this argument from suffering, they have all a right 
 to plead it. 
 
 But I may be told perhaps, that men by their 
 sufferings, though they do not prove their doctrines 
 to be true, yet prove at least their own sincerity ; as 
 if it were a thing impossible for men to dissemble at 
 the point of death ! Alas ! How many instances, 
 are there of men's denying facts plainly proved, 
 asserting facts plainly disproved, even with the rope 
 about their necks ; must all such pass for innocent 
 sufferers, sincere men ? If not, it must be allowed 
 that a man's word at the point of death is not always 
 to be relied on. 
 
 Another observation 1 would make, is with re- 
 spect to the evidence of the spirit, on which so much 
 stress is laid. It has hitherto been insisted on that 
 the Resurrection was a matter of fact, and such a 
 fact as was capable and proper to be supported b\ 
 the evidence of sense; how conies it about that this 
 evidence, this which is the proper evidence, is given 
 up as insufficient, and a new improper evidence 
 
440 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 introduced ? Is it not surprising that one great 
 miracle should want a hundred more to prove it? 
 Every miracle is itself an appeal to sense, and 
 therefore admits no evidence but that of sense ; and 
 there is no connection between a miracle done this 
 year and last year ; it does not follow therefore 
 because Peter cured a lame man (allowing the fact) 
 that therefore Christ rose from the dead. 
 
 But allowing the gentleman all he demands, what 
 is it to us? They who had the witness within them 
 did perhaps very well to consult him, and to take 
 his word ; but how am I, or others, who have not 
 this witness in us, the better for it ? If the first 
 ages of the church saw all the wonders related by 
 the gentleman, and believed, it shows, at least in his 
 opinion, that this strong evidence was necessary to 
 create the belief he requires ; why then does he 
 require this belief of us who have not this strong 
 evidence? * 
 
 Judge. Very well. Gentleman of the jury, you 
 have heard the proofs and arguments on both sides, 
 and it is now your part to give a verdict. 
 
 Mere the gentlemen whispered together, and the 
 Foreman stood up. 
 
 Foreman. My lord, the cause has been long, and 
 consists of several articles, therefore the jury hope 
 you will give them your directions. 
 
 Judge. No, no ; you are very able to judge with- 
 out my help. 
 
 Mr. A. My lord, pray consider, you appointed 
 this meeting, and chose your office ; Mr. 13. and I 
 have gone through our parts, and have some right to 
 insist on your doing your part. 
 
THE WITNESSES. 441 
 
 Mr. B. I must join, sir, in that request. 
 
 Judge. I have often heard that all honour has a 
 burden attending 1 it, but I did not suspect it in this 
 office, which I conferred upon myself; but since it 
 must be so, I will recollect and lay before you as 
 well as I can die substance of the debate. 
 
 Gentlemen of the jury, the question before you is, 
 whether the witnesses of the Resurrection of Christ 
 are guilty of giving false evidence or no? 
 
 Two sorts of objections or accusations are brought 
 against them ; one charges fraud and deceit on the 
 transaction itself; the other charges the evidence 
 as forged, and insufficient to support the credit of 
 so extraordinary an event. 
 
 There are also three periods of time to be con- 
 sidered. 
 
 The first takes in the ministry of Christ, and ends 
 at his death ; during this period the fraud is sup- 
 posed to be contrived. 
 
 The second reaches from his death to his Resur- 
 rection ; during this period the fraud is supposed to 
 be executed. 
 
 The third begins from the Resurrection, and takes 
 in the whole ministry of the apostles; and here the 
 evidence they gave the world for this fact is the 
 main consideration. 
 
 As to the first period of time, and the fraud 
 charged upon Jesus, I must observe to you, that 
 this charge had no evidence to support it, all the 
 facts reported of Jesus stand in full contradiction to 
 it. To suppose, as the counsel did, that this fraud 
 might possibly appear if we had any Jewish books 
 written at the time, is not to bring proof, but to 
 wish for proof; for, as it was rightly observed on 
 
 (J 9.) 3 k 
 
142 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 the other side, how xloes Mr. A. know there were 
 any such books ? And since they are lost, how 
 does he know what was in them ? Were si.<; 
 books extant, they might probably prove beyond 
 dispute the facts recorded in the gospels. 
 
 You were told that the Jews were a very super- 
 stitious people, much addicted to prophecy, and 
 particularly that they had a long expectation about 
 the time that Christ appeared, to have a victorious 
 prince rise among them. This is laid as to the 
 ground of suspicion, and in fact mauy impostors 
 you are told set up upon these notions of the people, 
 and thence it is inferred that Christ built his scheme 
 upon the strength of these popular prejudices ; bur 
 when this fact came to be examined on the other 
 side, it appeared that Christ was so far from falling 
 in with these notions and abusing the credulity ol 
 the people, that it was his main point to correct 
 these prejudices, to oppose these superstitions, and 
 by these very means he fell into disgrace with his 
 countrymen, and suffered as one who in their opinion 
 destroyed the law and the prophets ; with respect 
 to temporal power, so far was he from aiming at it, 
 that lie refused it when offered ; so far from giving 
 any hopes of it to his disciples, that he invited them 
 upon quite different terms, to take vp the cross and 
 folloiv him ; and it is observable that after he had 
 foretold his death and Resurrection, he continued 
 to admonish his disciples of the evils they were to 
 Suffer, to tell them that the world would hate them 
 and abuse them ; which surely to common sense has 
 no appearance that he was then contriving a cheat 
 or encouraging his disciples to execute it. 
 
 But as ill supported as this charge is, there wa* 
 
THE WITNESSES. 443 
 
 no avoiding it ; it was necessity and not choice, 
 which drove the gentleman to it; for since Christ 
 had foretold his Resurrection, if the whole was a 
 cheat, he certainly was conscious of it, and conse- 
 quently the plot was laid in his own time ; and yet 
 the supposing Christ conscious of such a fraud in 
 these circumstances is contrary to all probability ; 
 it is very improbable that he or any man shoula 
 without any temptation contrive a cheat to take place 
 after his death ; and if this could be supposed, it is 
 highly improbable, that he should give public notice 
 of it, and thereby put all men on their guard, 
 especially considering there were only a few women, 
 and twelve men of low fortunes and mean educa- 
 tion to conduct the plot, and the whole power of the 
 Jews and Romans to oppose it. 
 
 Mr. A. seemed sensible of these "difficulties, and 
 therefore would have varied the charge, and have 
 made Christ an enthusiast, and his disciples only 
 cheats ; this was not properly moved, and therefore 
 not debated, for which reason I shall pass it over, 
 with this short observation, that enthusiasm, is as 
 contrary to the whole character and conduct of 
 Christ as even fraud is ; besides, this imagination, 
 if allowed, goes only to Christ's own part, and leaves 
 the charge of fraud in its full extent upon the 
 management from the time of his death, and there- 
 fore is of no use, unless the fraud afterwards be 
 apparent ; for if there really was a Resurrection, it 
 will sufficiently answer the charge of enthusiasm. 
 
 I pass on then to the second period, to consider 
 what happened between the death and Resurrection 
 of Christ. And here it is agreed that Christ died, 
 and was buried ; so far then there was no fraud. 
 
444 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 For the bettei' understanding the charge here, we 
 must recollect a material circumstance reported by 
 one of the evangelists, which is this; after Christ 
 was buried, the chief priests and pharisees came to 
 Pilate, the Roman governor, and informed him that 
 this deceiver (meaning Jesus) had in his life-time 
 foretold that he would rise again after three days; 
 that they suspected his disciples would steal away 
 the body, and pretend a Insurrection, and then the 
 last error would be worse than the first; they there- 
 fore desire a guard to watch the sepulchre, to pre- 
 vent all fraud ; they had one granted, accordingly 
 they placed a watch on the sepulchre, and sealed 
 up the stone at the mouth of it. 
 
 What the event of this case was, the same writer 
 tells ; the guards saw the stone removed by angels, 
 and for fear they became as dead men ; when they 
 came to the city, they reported to the chief priests 
 what had happened ; a council is called, and a 
 resolution taken to bribe the soldiers to say, that 
 the body was stolen while they were asleep, and 
 the council undertook to excuse the soldiers to 
 Pilate for their negligence in falling asleep when 
 they were on duty. 
 
 Thus the fact stands in the original record. Now 
 the counsel for Woolston maintains, that the story 
 reported by the soldiers, after they had been bribed 
 by the chief priests, contains the true account of this 
 pretended Resurrection. 
 
 The gentleman was sensible of a difficulty in his 
 nay to account for the credit which the Jews s;ave 
 to the prediction of Christ ; for if, as he pretends, 
 Hiey knew him to be an impostor, what reason had 
 they to take any notice of his prediction ? And 
 
THE WITNESSES. 44', 
 
 therefore that very caution in this case betrayed their 
 concern, and showed that they were not satisfied 
 that his pretensions were groundless. To obviate 
 this, he says, that they had discovered before one 
 great cheat in the case of Lazarus, and therefore 
 were suspicious of another in this case. He was 
 answered, that the discovery of a cheat in this case 
 before mentioned, ought rather to have set them at 
 ease, and made them quite secure as to the evenl 
 of the prediction. In reply he says, that the chief 
 priests, however satisfied of the cheat themselves, 
 had found that it prevailed among the people ; and 
 to secure the people from being farther imposed on, 
 they used the caution they did. 
 
 This is the substance of the argument on both 
 sides. 
 
 I must observe to you, that this_ reasoning from 
 the case of Lazarus has no foundation in history ; 
 there is no pretence for saying that the Jews in this 
 whole affair had any particular regard to the raising 
 of Lazarus ; and if they had any such just suspicion, 
 why was it not mentioned at the trial of Christ ? 
 there was then au opportunity of opening the whole 
 fraud, and undeceiving the people ; the Jews had 
 a plain law for punishing a false prophet, and what 
 could be a stronger conviction than such a cheat 
 made manifest? Why then was this advantage 
 lost ? 
 
 The gentleman builds this observation en these 
 words, so the last error shall be worse than the first. 
 But is there here any thing said about Lazarus ? 
 No ; the words are a proverbial form of speech, 
 and probably were used without relation to anv 
 particular rase ; but if a particular meaning must 
 
446 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 be assigned, it is more probable, that the words being 
 used to Pilate, contained a reason applicable to him. 
 Now Pilate had been drawn in to consent to the 
 crucifixion, for fear the Jews should set up Jesus 
 to be their king in opposition to Caesar ; therefore, 
 say the chief priests to him, If once the people 
 believe him to be risen from the dead, the last error 
 will be worse than the first, i, e. they will be more 
 inclined and encouraged to rebel against the Romans 
 than ever ; this is a natural sense of the words, as 
 they are used to move the Roman governor to allow 
 tjiem a guard ; whether Lazarus were dead or alive 
 whether Christ came to destroy the law and the 
 prophets, or to establish or confirm them, was of 
 little moment to Pilate ; it is plain he was touched 
 by none of these considerations, and refused to be 
 concerned in the affair of Christ, till he was alarmed 
 with the suggestions of danger to the Roman state ; 
 this was the first fear that moved him ; must not 
 therefore the second now suggested to him be of 
 the same kind ? 
 
 The next circumstance to be considered, is that 
 of the seal upon the stone of the sepulchre. The 
 counsel for Woolston supposes an agreement be- 
 tween the Jews and disciples about setting this seal ; 
 but for this agreement there is no evidence ; nay, 
 to suppose it, contradicts the whole series of the 
 history, as the gentleman on the other side obsened ; 
 I will not enter into the particulars of this debate, 
 for it is needless ; the plain natural account given of 
 this matter shuts out all other suppositions. Mr 
 JB. observed to you, that the Jews having a guard 
 set the seal to prevent any combination among the 
 guards to deceive them ; which seems a plain and 
 
THE WITNESSES. 447 
 
 satisfactory account. The council for W. replies, 
 Let the use of the seals be what they will, it is plain 
 they were broken ; and if they were used as a check 
 upon the Roman soldiers, then probably they con- 
 sented to the fraud ; and then it is easily under- 
 stood how the body was removed. 
 
 I must observe to you here, that this suspicion 
 agrees neither with the account given by the evan- 
 gelist, nor with the story set about by the Jews ; so 
 that it is utterly unsupported by any evidence. 
 
 Nor has it any probability in it ; for what could 
 move Pilate and the Roman soldiers to propagate 
 such a cheat ? He had crucified Christ for no other 
 reason, but for fear the people should revolt from 
 the Romans ; perhaps too he consented to place a 
 guard upon the sepulchre, to put. an end to the 
 people's hope in Jesus ; and is it likely at last that 
 he was consenting to a cheat, to make the people 
 believe him risen from the dead? The thing of all 
 others which he was obliged, as his apprehensions 
 were, to prevent. 
 
 The next circumstance insisted on as a proof of 
 the fraud is, that Jesus rose before the time he had 
 appointed. Mr. A. supposes that the disciples 
 hastened the plot, for fear of falling in with mul- 
 titudes, who waited only for the appointed time to 
 be at the sepulchre, and to see with their own eyes. 
 He was answered, that the disciples were not, could 
 not be concerned, or be present at moving the body ; 
 that they were dispersed, and lay concealed for fear 
 of the Jews ; that hastening the plot was of no use, 
 for the Resurrection happened whilst the guards 
 were at the sepulchre, who were probably enough 
 
448 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 to prevent violence, certainly enough to discover it 
 if any were used. 
 
 This difficulty then rests merely upon the reckon- 
 ing of the time. Christ died on Friday, rose early 
 on Sunday ; the question is, whether this was rising 
 the third day according to the prediction ? I will 
 refer the authorities made use of in this case to your 
 memory, and add only one observation, to show that 
 it was indeed the third day according as the people 
 of the country reckoned. When Christ talked with 
 i^ie two disciples who knew him not, they gave him 
 an account of his own crucifixion, and their disap- 
 pointment ; and tell him, To-day is the third day 
 since these things were done. Now this conversation 
 was on the very day of the Resurrection, and the 
 disciples thought of nothing less than answering an 
 objection against the Resurrection, which as yet 
 they did not believe ; they recount only a matter of 
 fact, and reckon the time according to the usage of 
 their country, and call the day of the Resurrection 
 the third day from the Crucifixion ; which is a plaiu 
 evidence in what manner the Jews reckoned in this 
 and like cases. 
 
 As the objections in this case are founded upon 
 the story reported by the Jews and the Roman 
 soldiers, Mr. B. in his answer endeavoured to show 
 from some historical passages that the Jews them- 
 selves did not believe the story. 
 
 His first argument was, that the Jews never ques- 
 tioned the disciples for this cheat, and the share 
 they had in it when they had them in their power; 
 and yet who sees not that it was very much to their 
 purpose so to do ? To this there is no reply. 
 
THE WITNESSES. 449 
 
 The second argument was from the treatment St. 
 Paul bad from king Agrippa, and his saying to St. 
 Panl, Almost thou persuadesl me to be a Christian , 
 a speech which he reckons could not he made by 
 a prince to one concerned in carrying on a known 
 cheat. To this the gentleman replies, that Agrippa 
 never did become a Christian, and that no great 
 stress is to be laid upon his coinpl usance to his 
 prisoner; but allowing that there was something of 
 humanity and civility in the expression, yet such 
 civility could hardly be paid to a known impostor. 
 There is a propriety even in civility; a prince may 
 be civil to a rebel, but he will hardly compliment 
 him for his loyalty ; he may be civil to a poor 
 sectary, but if he knows him to be a cheat, he will 
 scarcely compliment him with hopes that he will be 
 of his party. 
 
 The third argument was from the advice given 
 by Gamaliel to the council of the Jews, to let the 
 apostles alone, jor fear they themselves should be 
 found to fight against God. A supposition which 
 the gentleman thinks absolutely inconsistent with his 
 or the council's being persuaded that the apostles 
 were guilty of any fraud in managing the Resurrec- 
 tion of Christ. 
 
 The gentleman replies, that Gamaliel's advice 
 respected only the numbers of people deceived, and 
 was a declaration of his opinion, that it was not 
 prudent to come to extremities till the people were 
 in a better temper. This deserves consideration. 
 
 First, I observe, that Gamaliel's words are ex- 
 press ; lest ye be found to fight against God ; which 
 reason respects God, and not the people ; and the 
 supposition is, that the hand of God might possibly 
 
 (19J 3 l 
 
M) THE TRIAL OF 
 
 be in this work ; a saying -which could not have 
 coirte from him, or have been received by the coun- 
 cil, if they had believed the Resurrection to have 
 been a cheat. 
 
 Secondly, It is remarkable that the miracles 
 wrought by the apostles after the death of Christ, 
 those especially which occasioned the calling this 
 council, had a much greater effect upon the Jews 
 than even the miracles of Christ himself; they held 
 out against all the wonders of Christ, and were 
 perpetually plotting his death, not doubting but that 
 would put an end to their trouble ; but when, after 
 his death, they saw the same powers continue with 
 the apostles, they saw no end of the affair, but 
 began to think in earnest there might be more fn 
 it than they were willing to believe, and upon the 
 report made to them of the apostles' works, they 
 make serious reflection, and doubted vvhereunto this 
 would grow ; and though in their anger and vexation 
 of heart they thought of desperate remedies, and 
 were for killing the apostles also, yet they hearkened 
 willingly to Gamaliel's advice, which at another time 
 might have been dangerous to the adviser ; so that 
 it appears from the history that the whole council 
 had the same doubt that Gamaliel had, that possibly 
 the hand of God might be in this thing ; and could 
 the Jews, if they had manifestly discovered the cheat 
 of the Resurrection a little tune before, have enter- 
 tained such a suspicion ? 
 
 .The last period commences at the Resurrection, 
 and takes in the evidence upon which the credit .of 
 this fact stands. 
 
 The counsel for Woolston, among other difficul- 
 ties, started one, which if well grounded, excludes 
 
THE WITNESSES. 461 
 
 all evidence out of this case. The Resurrection 
 being a thing out of the course of nature, he thinks 
 the testimony of nature, held forth to us in her 
 constant method of working", a stronger evidence 
 against the possibility of a Resurrection, than any 
 human evidence can be for the reality of one. 
 
 In answer to this, it is said on the other side. > 
 
 First, That a Resurrection is a thing to be judged 
 of by men's senses ; and this cannot be doubted. 
 We all know when a man is dead ; and should he 
 come to life again, we might judge whether he was 
 alive or no by the very same means by which we 
 judge those about us to be living men. 
 
 Secondly, That the notion of a Resurrection con- 
 tradicts no one principle of right reason, interferes 
 with no law of nature; and that -whoever admits 
 that God gave man life at first, cannot possibly 
 doubt of his power to restore it when lost. 
 
 Thirdly, That appealing to the settled course of 
 nature, is referring the matter in dispute not to rules 
 or maxims of reason and true philosophy, but to the 
 prejudices and mistakes of men, which are various 
 and infinite, and differ sometimes according to the 
 climate men live in ; because men form a notion of 
 nature from what they see ; and therefore in cold 
 countries all men judge it to be according to the 
 course of nature for water to freeze, in warm coun- 
 tries they judge it to be unnatural ; consequently, 
 that it is not enough to prove any thing to be con- 
 trary to the laws of nature, to say that it is usually 
 or constantly to our observation otherwise; and 
 therefore though men in the ordinary course die, 
 and do not rise again (which is ce tai ily a pre- 
 {iidice against the belief of a Resurrection) yet is 
 
452 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 it not an argument against the possibility of a Resur- 
 rection. 
 
 Another objection was against the reality of the 
 body of Christ after it came from the grave. These 
 objections are founded upon such passages as report 
 his appearing or disappearing to the eyes of his 
 disciples at pleasure; his coming in among them 
 when the doors were shut; his forbidding some, to 
 touch him, his inviting others to do it ; his having 
 the very wouuds whereof he died fresh and open 
 in* h«s body, and the like ; hence th. counsel con- 
 cluded that it was no real body which was some- 
 times visible, sometimes invisible ; sometimes capa- 
 ble of being touched, sometimes incapable. 
 
 On the other side it was answered, that many of 
 these objections are founded on a mistaken sense 
 of the passages referred to ; particularly of the 
 passage in which Christ is thought to forbid Mary 
 Magdalen to touch him ; of another, in which he 
 calls to Thomas to examine his wounds ; and pro- 
 bably of a third, relating to Christ's conversation 
 with his disciples on the road, without being known 
 by them. 
 
 As to other passages which relate his appearing 
 and disappearing, and coming in when the doors 
 were shut, it is said that no conclusion can be draws 
 from them against the reality of Christ's body ; that 
 these things might happen many ways, and yet the 
 body be real, which is the only point to which the 
 present objection extends; that there might be in 
 this, and probably was, something miraculous, but 
 nothing more wonderful than what happened on 
 another occasion in his life-time, where the geotle 
 
THE WITNESSES. 453 
 
 man* who makes the objection allows him to have 
 had a real body. 
 
 I mention these things but briefly, just to bring the 
 course of the argument to your remembrance. 
 
 The next objection is taken from hence, that 
 Christ did not appear publicly to the people, and 
 particularly to the chief priests and rulers of the 
 Jews; it is said that his commission related to them 
 in an especial manner, and that it appears strange 
 that ihe main proof of his mission, the Resurrection, 
 should not be laid before them, but that witnesses 
 should be picked and culled to see this mighty 
 wonder; this is the force of the objection. 
 
 To which it was answered, First, that the parti- 
 cular commission to the Jews expired at the death 
 of Christ, and therefore the Jews had on this ac- 
 count no claim for any particular evidence ; and it 
 is insisted that Christ before his death declared 
 the Jews should not see him till they were better 
 disposed to receive him. 
 
 Secondly, That as the whole world had a concern 
 in the Resurrection of Christ, it was necessary to 
 prepare a proper evidence for the whole world ; 
 which was not to be done by any particular satis- 
 faction given to the people of the Jews, or their 
 rulers. 
 
 Thirdly, That as to the chosen witnesses, it is a 
 mistake to think that they were chosen as the only 
 persons to see Christ after the Resurrection ; and 
 that in truth many others did see him ; but that the 
 witnesses were chosen as proper persons to bear 
 testimony to all people; an office to which many 
 others who did see Christ were not particularly 
 commissioned ; that making choice of proper and 
 
454 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 credible witnesses, was so far from being a ground of 
 just suspicion, that it is in all cases the most proper 
 way to exclude suspicion. 
 
 The next objection is pointed against the evidence 
 of the angels and the women. It is said that history 
 reports that the women saw young men at the sepul- 
 chre ; that they were advanced into angels merely 
 through the tear and superstition of the women ; 
 that at the best this is but a story of an apparition, 
 a thing in times of ignorance much talked of, but iu 
 the days of knowledge never heard of. 
 
 In answer to this it is said, that the angels are 
 not properly reckoned among the witnesses of the 
 Resurrection, they were not in the number of the 
 chosen witnesses, or sent to bear testimony in the 
 world ; that they were indeed ministers of God, 
 appointed to attend the Resurrection ; that .God 
 has such ministers cannot be reasonably doubted, 
 nor can it be objected that they were improperly 
 employed, or below their dignity in attending on 
 the Resurrection of Christ ; that we believe them to 
 be angels, not on the report of the women, but upon 
 the credit of the evangelist who affirms it ; that 
 what is said of apparitions on this occasion may 
 pass for wit and ridicule, but yields no reason or 
 argument. 
 
 The objection to the women was I think, only 
 that they were women, which was strengthened by 
 calling them silly women. 
 
 It was answered, that women have eyes and ears 
 as well as men, and can tell what they see and hear; 
 and it happened iu this ease that the women were 
 so far from being credulous, that they believed not 
 the angels, and hardly believed their own report ; 
 
THE WITNESSES. 455 
 
 however, that the women are none of the chosen 
 witnesses ; and if they were, the evidence of the 
 men cannot be set aside because women saw what 
 they saw. 
 
 This is #se substance of the objections and an- 
 swers. 
 
 The counsel for the apostles insisted further, that 
 they gave the greatest assurance to the world that 
 possibly could be given of their sincere dealing;, by 
 suffering all kind of hardship, and at last death itself, 
 iu confirmation of the truth of the evidence. 
 
 The counsel for Woolston, in reply to this, told 
 you, that all religions, whether true or false, have 
 had their martyrs ; that no opinion, how ever absurd, 
 can be named but some have been content to die 
 for it; and then concluded, that suffering is no 
 evidence of the truth of the opinions for which men 
 6uffer. 
 
 To clear this matter to you, I must observe how 
 this case stands. You have heard often in the course 
 of this argument, that the apostles were witnesses 
 chosen to bear testimony to the Resurrection, and 
 for that reason had the fullest evidence themselves 
 of the truth of it, not merely by seeing Christ once 
 or twice after his death, but by frequent conversations 
 with him for forty days together before his ascension; 
 that this was their proper business, appears plainly 
 from history, where we find, that to ordain an 
 apostle was the same thing as ordaining one to be 
 a witness of the Resurrection. If you look further 
 to the preaching of the apostles, you will find this 
 was the great article insisted on. And St. Paul 
 knew the weight of this article, and the necessity 
 of teaching it when he said, If Christ be not risen 
 
456" THE TRIAL OF 
 
 our faith is vain. You see then that the thing which 
 the apostles testified, and the thing for which they 
 suffered, was the truth of the Resurrection, which is 
 a mere matter of fact. 
 
 Consider now how the objection stands. The 
 counsel for Woolston tells you that it is common 
 for men to die for false opinions, and he tells you 
 nothing but the truth ; but even in these cases their 
 suffering is an evidence of their sincerity, and it 
 would be very hard to charge men who die for the 
 ^doctrine they profess, with insincerity in the profes- 
 sion ; mistaken they may be, but every mistaken 
 man is not a cheat. Now if you will allow the 
 suffering of the apostles to prove their sincerity, 
 •which you cannot well disallow, and consider that 
 they died for the truth of a matter of fact which 
 they had seen themselves, you will perceive how 
 strong the evidence is in this case. In doctrines 
 and matters of opinion men mistake perpetually, 
 and it is no reason for me to take up with another 
 man's opinion, because I am persuaded he is sincere 
 in it ; but when a man reports to me an uncommon 
 fact, yet such a one as in its own nature is a plain 
 object of sense, if I believe him not, it is not because 
 I suspect his eyes, or his sense of feeling, but merely 
 because I suspect his sincerity ; for if I was to see 
 the same thing myself, I should believe myself; 
 and therefore my suspicion does not arise from the 
 inability of human senses to judge in the case, but 
 from a doubt of the sincerity of the reporter ; and 
 since voluntary suffering for the truth is at least a 
 proof of sincerity, the sufferings of the apostles for 
 the truth of the Resurrection is a full and unexcep- 
 tionable proof. 
 
THE WITNESSES. 457 
 
 The counsel for Woolston was sensible of this 
 difference and therefore lie added, that there are 
 many instances of men's suffering and dying -in an 
 obstinate denial of the truth of farts plainly proved. 
 Can the gentleman give me any instances of persons 
 who died willingly in attestation of a false fact? 
 We have had in England some weak enough to die 
 for the pope's supremacy; but do you think a man 
 could be found to die in proof of the pope's being 
 actually on the throne of England. 
 
 Now the apostles died in asserting the truth of 
 Christ's Resurrection : it was always in their power 
 to quit their evidence and save their lives. Others 
 have denied facts or asserted facts in hopes of 
 saving their lives when they were under sentence 
 of death, but these men attested a fact at the 
 expence of their lives, which they might have saved 
 by denying the truth ; so that there is this material 
 difference ; criminals deny the truth in hopes of 
 saving their lives, the apostles willingly parted witli 
 their lives rather than deny the truth. 
 
 We are come now to the last, and indeed the 
 most weighty consideration. 
 
 The counsel for the apostles having in the course 
 of the argument allowed, that more evidence is 
 required to support the credit of the Resurrection, 
 it being a very extraordinary event, than is necessary 
 in common cases ; in the latter part of his defence 
 he sets forth the extraordinary evidence upon which 
 this fact stands; this is the evidence of the spirit ; 
 the spirit of wisdom and power, which was given to 
 the apostles, to enable them to confirm their U 
 mony by signs and wonders, and mighty works. 
 
 The counsel for Woolston, in his reply, made 
 two objections to this evidence. 
 10. 3 M 
 
458 THE TRIAL OF 
 
 The first was this : that the resurrection having 
 all along been pleaded to be a matter of fact and 
 an object of sense, to recur to miracles for the proof 
 of it, is to take it out of its proper evidence, the 
 evidence of sense, and to rest it upon a proof which 
 cannot be applied to it; for seeing one miracle, he 
 says, is no evidence that another miracle was 
 wrought before it ; as healing a sick man is no evi- 
 dence that a dead man was raised to life. 
 
 To clear this difficulty, you must consider by what 
 train ofreasoning miracles come to be nothing unless 
 tins only, that there is a cause equal to the produc- 
 ing the effect we see. Suppose you should see a 
 man raise one from the dead, and he should go away 
 and say nothing to you, you would not find that 
 any fact or any proposition was proved or disprov- 
 ed by this miracle ; but should he declare to you in 
 the name of him by whose power the miracle was 
 wrought, that image-worship was unlawful, you 
 would then be possessed of a proof against image- 
 worship. But how ? Not because the miracle 
 proves any thing as to the point itself, but because 
 the man's declaration is authorized by him who 
 wf6'iight the miracle in confirmation of his doctrine; 
 and therefore miracles are directly a proof of the 
 authority of persons, and not of the truth of things. 
 
 To apply this to the present case. If the apostles 
 had wrought miracles, and said nothing of the Re- 
 surrection, the miracles would have proved nothing 
 about the Resurrection oneway or other; but when 
 as eye-witnesses they attested the truth of the Re- 
 surrection, and wrought miracles to confirm their 
 authority, the miracles did not directly prove the 
 Resurrection, but they confirmed and established 
 beyond all suspicion the proper evidence, the evi- 
 
THE WITNESSES. 45i) 
 
 deuce of eye-witnesses ; so that here is no change 
 of the evidence from proper to improper, the fact 
 still ret ts upon the evidence of sense, confirmed and 
 strengthened by the authority of the spirit. 
 
 The second objection was, that this evidence, 
 however good it may be in its kind, is yet nothing 
 to us ; it was well, the gentleman says, for those who 
 had it; but what is that to us who have it not ? 
 
 To adjust this difficulty, I must observe to you, 
 that the evidence now under consideration was not 
 a private evidence of the Spirit, or any inward light, 
 like to that which the Quakers in our time pretend 
 to, but an evidence appearing in the manifest and 
 visible works of the Spirit; and this evidence was 
 capable of being transmitted, and actually had been 
 transmitted so us upon unquestionable authority ; 
 and to allow the evidence to have been good in the 
 iirst ages, and not in this, seems to me to be a con- 
 tradiction to the rules of reasoning; for if we see 
 enough to judge that the first ages had reason to 
 believe, we must needs see at the same time that it 
 is reasonable for us also to believe ; as the present 
 question only relates to the nature of the evidence, 
 it was not necessary to produce from history the 
 instances to show in how plentiful a manner this 
 evidence was granted to the church ; whoever 
 wants this satisfaction, may easily have it. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Jury, I have laid before you the 
 substance of what has been said on both sides, you 
 are now to consider of it, and to give your verdict. 
 
 The Jury consulted together, and the Foreman rose up. 
 
 Foreman. My lord, we are ready to give our 
 verdict. 
 
460 THE TRIAL, &c. 
 
 Judge. Are you all agreed ? Jury. Yes. 
 
 Judge. Who shall speak for jou ? 
 
 Jury. Our Foreman. 
 
 Judge. What say you ? Are the apostles guilty 
 of giving false evidence in the case of the Resurrec- 
 tion of Jesus, or not guilty ? 
 
 Foreman, Not guilty. 
 
 Judge. Very well. And now, gentlemen I resign 
 my commission, and am your humble servant. 
 
 The company rose up, and were beginning to 
 make their compliments to the judge and the Jury, 
 but were interrupted by a gentleman, who went up 
 to the juijge and offered him a fee. What is this ? 
 says the judge. A fee, sir, said the gentleman. A 
 fee to a judge is a bribe, said the judge. True, sir, 
 said the gentleman ; but you have resigned your 
 commission, aud will not be the first judge who has 
 come from the bench to the bar without any diminu- 
 tion of honour. Now Lazarus's case is to come on 
 next, and this fee is to retain you on his side. There 
 followed a confused noise of all speaking together, 
 to persuade the judge to take the fee ; but as the 
 trial had lasted longer than I expected, and I had 
 lapsed the time of an appointment for business, I 
 was forced to slip away; and whether the judge 
 was prevailed upon to undertake the cause of Laza- 
 rus or no, I cannot say. 
 
 FINIS. 
 DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER. 
 
 . Great Assize, . to face printed Title 
 
 The Crucifixion - - - - 
 
 Entombing of Christ - - - 20H 
 
 Jesus the Korerumier .... 
 
 Christ raising Lazarus .... 268 
 
* 
 
• 
 
* 
 
\r 
 
 $?j#yr 
 
 fititm'S* 
 
 "• 
 
 **]. 
 
ft