Heb. ii. 2. 3. 4. 5. For if the word spoken by angels was ftedfaft, and every tranfgrefion and difobedience received a juft recompence of reward: how shall we efcape, if we neglect fo great falvation, which at the firft began to be Spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God alfo bearing them witness, both with figns and wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? For unto the an gels hath he not put in fubjection the world to come, whereof we speak. That is, if the promises and threatnings of the law, which was delivered but by the miniftry of angels, were made good, and the offenders under that difpenfation were feverely punished, what fhall be come of us, if we neglect the difpenfation of the gospel, which reveals to us greater things, even eternal life and falvation, and which receiveth fo great a confirmation, both from Chrift himself, by whom it was first delivered, and alfo from his Apoftles, who published it to the world, and gave teftimony to it by fo many miracles? And it follows, at ver. 5. For unto the angels hath he not put in fubjection the world to come, whereof we now speak. The meaning of which is this, the promises and threatnings of the law, which was delivered by angels, were temporal, and fuch as refpected this world; but now God hath fent his Son, he hath in him made promifes of a greater falvation, he hath put into his hands the great things of another world, and hath given him power to promise eternal life, and to give it to as many as he pleafes. So the danger of contemning the gofpel,mult needs be much greater than that of the law, because the happiness which the gofpel promifes, is fo much greater. For unto the angels, who delivered the law, God gave no power and commiffion to make clear and exprefs promifes of the rewards of another world. Unto the angels did he not put in fubjection the world to come; but fo hath he done to his Son, He hath committed all judgment to him, and hath given him power to raife up thofe who have done good, unto the refurrection of life, and those that have done evil, unto the refurrection of damnation as our Saviour himself fpeaks, John v. 22.: and thus he hath put the world to come in fubjection unto bis Son, having empowered him to encourage and argue

men

men to the obedience of his laws, by the rewards and punishments of another world: whereas the law delivered by angels, had only the fanction of temporal threatnings and promifes. Heb. vii. 16. The gofpel is called the power of an eternal life, in oppofition to the law, which is called a carnal commandment; not only because the precepts of it refpected the body, but becaufe the promises of it were of temporal good things which belong to this life; and at the 19th verfe, the gofpel, in oppofition to the Mofaical difpenfation, is called the bringing in of a better hope: the law made nothing perfect; but the bringing in of a better hope did; ETUαywyn, the Superinduction of a better hope; by which the Apostle plainly fignifies, that this was the imperfection of the Mofaical difpenfation, that it did not give men firm hopes and affurance of eternal life; but the gofpel hath fuperinduced this hope, and thereby fupplied the great defect of the former administration. To the fame purpofe he tells us, chap. viii. 6. that Chrift hath now obtained a more excellent ministry, for as much as he is the Mediator of a better covenant, established upon better promifes. How better promifes? Why, inftead of the promises of a temporal Canaan and earthly bleffings, Chrift hath given us promises of eternal life and happiness. Therefore, in the next chapter, he is called an High Priest of the good things to come; and ver. 15. For this caufe, he is faid to be the Mediator of the New Teftament, that they which are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. Once more, the Apoftle, chap. x. ver. 1. makes this the great imperfection of the law, in oppofition to the gofpel, that it had only a shadow of good things to come, but not the very image of the things; that is, it did but darkly typify and fhadow forth the things of another life, not give us fo exprefs an image, and lively representation of the rewards of another world, as the gofpel does. Therefore St. John makes eternal life to be the great promife of the gofpel, the great bleffing which Chrift hath revealed to the world, 1 John ii. 25. This is the promife which he hath promised, even eternal life. So that you fee, that the full and clear discovery of eternal life, is every where, in the New Testament,

attributed to Christ, and to the revelation which by him was made to the world.

It remains now, that I fhew more particularly, wherein the gospel hath given the world greater evidence and affurance of a future ftate, than they had before.

1. The rewards of another life are most clearly revealed in the gospel. That God hath made a revelation of this by Chrift, is an advantage which the Heathen wanted, who were deftitute of divine revelation. There are many truths which men may be well inclined to believe; and, for the proof of which, the wifer and more knowing fort of men may be able to offer very fair and plaufible arguments; and yet for all this they may have no confident assurance of them, or at least may be very far from a well-grounded certainty, fuch as will give reft and fatisfaction to the mind of a confiderate and inquifitive man. All men are not capable of the force of a reafon; nay, there are very few who can truly judge of the weakness or ftrength of an argument. There are many things which admit of very plaufible arguments on both fides; and the generality of men are very apt to be impofed upon by very flight arguments, to be moved any way with fome little fhew and appearance of reafon. So that when this principle of the foul's immortality came to be difputed in the world, and the fects of the Philofophers, the learned men of thofe times, came to be divided in opinion about it, fome difputing directly against it, others doubting very much of it, and fcarce any pretending to any great affurance of it, it was no wonder, if by this means many came to be in fufpence about it; but now divine revelation, when that comes, it takes away all doubting, and gives men affurance of that, concerning which they were uncertain before. For every man that believes a God, does firmly believe this principle, that whatever is revealed by him is true: But efpecially if the revela tion be clear and exprefs, then it gives full fatisfaction to the mind of man, and removes all jealoufy and fufpicions of the contrary. And this is a great advan tage which the gofpel gives us in this matter, above what the Jews had. They had fome kind of revelation

and

and discovery of this under the difpenfation of the law; but very darkly, in types and fhadows: but the gofpel gives us a moft exprefs revelation of it, is full of fpecial promifes to this purpose, made in clear words, free from all ambiguity, or liableness to be interpreted to another fenfe. So that if we compare the law and the go-fpel together, we fhall fee a vaft difference as to this matter. Under the law, the promise of eternal life was only comprehended in fome general words, from which a man that had true notions of God and religion, might be able to infer, that God intended fome reward for good men, and punishment for wicked men, beyond this life: But the promises of temporal good things were special and exprefs, and their law was full of them. Contrary wife in the New Teftament, the most special and exprefs promife is that of eternal life; and this the books of the New Teftament are full of; as for temporal bleffings, they are but fparingly and obfcurely promifed, in comparison of the other.

2. The rewards of another life, as they are clearly and exprefly revealed by the gofpel, fo that they may have the greater power and influence upon us, and we may have the greater affurance of them, they are revealed with very particular circumftances. And herein the gospel gives us a great advantage, both above the Heathens and Jews. For though a man was fatisfied in general of a state after this life, that mens fouls fhould furvive their bodies, and pass into another world, where it fhall be well with them that have done well in this world, and ill to thofe that have done ill; yet no man, without a revelation, could conjecture the particular circumstances of that state. What wild defcriptions do the Heathen pocts, who were their most antient divines, make of heaven and hell, of the Elyfian fields, and the infernal regions! But now the gospel, for our greater affurance and fatisfaction, hath revealed many particular circumftances of the future ftate to us; as that all men at the end of the world fhall be fummoned to make a folemn appearance before the Lord Jefus Chrift, whom God hath made judge of the world, as a reward of his patience and sufferings; that the bodies of men fhall, in order to that appearance, be raised up

by

by the mighty power of God, and united to their fouls, that as they have been inftruments of the foul in acts of holiness and fin, fo they may take part likewise in the happiness and torments of it. There are feveral other circumftances the gofpel hath revealed to us concerning our future ftate, which, had they not been revealed, we could never have known, hardly have conjectured; in all which, befides the affurance that they are revealed, it is a great fatisfaction to us, that there' is nothing in them that is unworthy of God, or that favours of the weakness and vanity of human imagina

tion.

3. The gofpel gives us yet farther affurance of these things, by fuch an argument as is like to be the most convincing and fatisfactory to common capacities; and that is by a lively inftance of the thing to be proved, in raising Chrift from the dead, Acts xvii. 30. 31.

It is true indeed, under the Old Testament there were two inftances fomewhat of this nature; Enoch and Elias were immediately tranflated, and taken up alive into heaven; but these two inftances do in many refpects fall fhort of the other. For, after Chrift was raifed from the dead, he converfed forty days with his difciples, and fatisfied them that he was rifen; after which he was in their fight visibly taken up into heaven: And as an evidence that he was poffeffed of his glorious kingdom, he fent down, according to his promife, his holy fpirit in miraculous gifts, to affure them by thofe teftimonies of his royalty, that he was in heaven, and to qualify them, by thofe miraculous powers, to convince the world of the truth of their doctrine.

Now, what argument more proper to convince them of another life after this, than to fee a man raised from the dead, and restored to a new life? what fitter to fatisfy a man concerning heaven, and the happy estate of those there, than to fee one vifibly taken up into heaven? and what more fit to affure us, that the promises of the gospel are real, and shall be made good to us, than to fee him who made these promises to us, raise himself from the dead, and go up into heaven, and from thence to difpenfe miraculous gifts and powers abroad in the world, as evidences of the power and authority which he was