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bal; the Words which we tranflate, Say ye to him that liveth in Profperity, in the Original are only, Say ye to him that liveth. So the Pfalmift is to be understood, Pfal. lxix. 32. The humble fball fee this and be glad, and your Heart hall live that feek God. And St. Paul, 1 Theff. iii. 8. Now we live, if ye ftand faft in the Lord. And fo very often in holy Scripture Life is taken for an happy and glorious Life. Thus Mat. xix. 17. If thou wilt enter into Life, keep the Commandments. And John v. 29. The Hour is coming, in which all that are in the Graves fhall hear his Voice, and fhall come forth, they that have done good, unto the Refurrection of Life. The fame I told you of antient Heathen Authors, who use the Word to live, for living joyfully and happily. So Catullus, Vivamus mea Lefbia; i. e. Let us enjoy our felves. So Martial,

Sera nimis Vita eft craftina, vive hodie.

Live to day, fays he, it is too late to live to morrow. Taking then the Word Life, for an happy Life; to understand it right, we must know wherein eternal Happiness doth confift. And though this is a Subject far above our weak Capacities to understand, for when we have done our best to explain it, we may truly fay with the Apostle St. John, 1 John iii. 2. It doth not yet appear what we shall be; yet fome of the principal rough Draughts of that happy Life we give you from the holy Scriptures.

1. First then, as to the Bodies of good Men after the Refurrection, they fhall be no longer carnal, lumpish, weak, fickly, or mortal; but

fpiritual,

fpiritual, fprightly, lively, immortal, and incorruptible. As there is a great Difference between living in an old, leaky Houfe, made of Dirt and Clay, every Day mouldering away, and quickly tumbling down; and living in a pleasant well built Palace, where there are all Manner of Conveniences; fo our Souls will be unspeakably more commodiously lodged in that Building of God, as the Apostle calls it, 2 Cor. v. 1. Eternal in the Heavens, than in these heavy, weak, fickly, dying Bodies, which we carry about with us in this World.

2. Secondly, The Soul will be as much improved as the Body; for as to it's Understanding, whereas we labour here with a great deal of Pains after the Knowledge of a few Truths, and these we never attain to in any great Perfection, but fee them in an obfcure Manner, as through a Glass darkly, 1 Cor. xiii. 12. and when we know them, are very apt to forget them again, through Weakness of Memory, Multiplicity of Bufinefs, and many Diftempers incident to Body and Mind; it fhall be quite otherwife in that bleffed State, where we fhall fee Things fo clearly as one Man fees another, Face to Face ; and both our Understandings shall be enlarged to the utmost Capacity of apprehending and comprehending all Truths, even fuch as do eafily puzzle and confound us in this Life, and we hall be delivered from all thofe Weaknesses and Infirmities, which occafion here our forgetting daily many Things which we formerly learned and knew. And, which is above all, our Wills shall be perfected into a true Habit of Holiness, and exact Conformity to the Will of God, and a per

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fect Liberty from all Servitude of Sin. And our Affections fhall be restored to a true Harmony, of good Regulation, and abfolute Contentment and Satisfaction.

3. Thirdly, As our Perfons fhall be thus admirably well difpofed for partaking of all Happiness, fo fuch a Happiness fhall be provided for us, as fhall fufficiently answer the utmost Capacities of fuch a perfect and glorified Creature. I fhall not pretend to enumerate, but leave it to yourselves to confider the innumerable Branches of that Happiness, refulting from our Knowledge, Vifion, and Love of God; and his reciprocal Love of us again; from the happy Society of Saints and Angels; from the perfect good Government of Heaven; from an abfolute Freedom from all Pain, Mifery, Toil, Weariness, and Want; from an Impoffibility of finning and offending God; from the Poffeffion of all Good, and the unfpeakable Joy and Complacence flowing from it; and the Affurance that all this fhall laft for ever and ever.

So much for the Defcription of the Nature of thefe different States here mentioned.

III. I go on now in the third Place, to fhew that thefe different States refult from the different Courfes of Life of good and bad Men. This I think is very plain from my Text, in which it is faid, that wide is the Gate, and broad is the Way that leadeth to Destruction; and ftrait is the Gate, and narrow is the Way, which leadeth unto Life. It is a great and dangerous Miftake in many People, that they look upon the Rewards and Punishments of the future State, fo abstractedly

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abstractedly from the Life and Temper of the Perfons, who are to be fo rewarded and punished, as if it were only an arbitrary Act of God's that hinders a wicked Man to get to Heaven, or a good Man to drop into Hell. The Confequence of which is, that God's Juftice, or his Mercy at leaft, are taxed and called in Queftion, though by the eternal Laws of Righteousness both have the natural Fate to which their wicked or good Deeds do naturally lead. This if duly confidered, would vindicate God's Juftice from all Imputations, and would fhew, that, without a Miracle to hinder it, a wicked Man's Life and Actions will carry him as naturally to Hell, as the Rivers run into the Sea and therefore that the whole Fault lies in the first choofing, and the after holding on fo long in the Ways of Sin, which infallibly lead to Death. God has declared with an Affeveration, that as he lives he bas no Pleafure in the Death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his Way and live, Ezek. xxxiii. II.

For apprehending the Meaning of this Truth, we are to confider, that it is a Thing which implies no less than a Contradiction, that an unholy, unregenerate Man, continuing fuch, fhould be happy in the Enjoyment of an holy God; Light and Darkness, Bitter and Sweet, or any other the most inconfiftent Things in Nature, may agree as well as these two. First, It is utterly inconfiftent with the Nature of God, to love impure Souls, continuing fuch; and his Nature being unchangeable, he muft for ever hate with a perfect Hatred, whatsoever is unalterably unholy and impure; and to suppose an Interruption

of

of his Hatred of incorrigible Sinners, is to ima→ gine he can ceafe to be a pure and holy God. Secondly, They that are habitually and finally wicked, having flipt their Day of Grace, and loft the Time for Repentance, must needs be prefumed to continue wicked and impenitent, while they have any Being or Subfiftence in the future State, and confequently having an everlasting Averfion to God, can never be happy in the Enjoyment of him.

Thirdly, The Souls of wicked Men being immortal, they must have an eternal Duration, except God fhould be pleafed to annihilate them; and this he has no where promised that he will do neither is he any where obliged to it. He Has not promifed that he will do it; fo far from it, that he has declared the quite contrary: For he has told us of that State of the Damned, that their Worm dieth not, and their Fire fhall not be quenched; and their Punishments too are reprefented as various, that fome fhall fuffer more, fome lefs; It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment, than for Capernaum, Matth. xi. 21. and that fome fhall be beaten with many, and fome with fewer Stripes, Luke xii. 47. And that fome fhall receive greater Damnation than others, Matth. xxiii. 14. All which is directly contrary to this Fancy of Annihilation; for if that were were true, then all fhould fuffer equally: Because there are no Degrees of Annihilation or not being. And as God has no where promised this to the Wicked, he is no manner of Way obliged to do this for them: For as a learned Man of our Church argues well

* Dr. Whitby.

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