THe more attentively we consider the Christian Religion in any of its parts, we find greater grounds for the confir­mation both of its Author and excellency; so in­finitely does it surpass all those writings of that nature, which the great Sages of the World, have, with so much superciliousness on their part, and admiration from their respective fol­lowers, I may add too (all things considered) not without meriting due praise from us, delive­red to their Scholars.

And this will appear evident and undeniable if we but parallel them in any of the chief heads; for instance, in the principles upon which our Re­ligion does proceed, the precepts it contains, and the rewards it appoints; which division will com­prize the summ of what we profess: In all which the great Masters of Heathen wisdom, do plain­ly discover, either a great deal of Ignorance, or [Page 2] malice, in prevaricating that light they had re­flected upon them from Jewish tradition, so that it may be well doubted whether their Symbolick Divinity were not design'd rather to conceal their own Ignorance in what they pretended to, than to secure the rites and mysteries thereof from the vulgar's profanation. For example:

1. Take first the Principles, those truths that are the Basis and foundation of our Religion; such as are the Being and Nature of God, the Creation of the World, the Fall of man, and his Redemption by a Messias, the Immortality of the Soul, and the Resurrection; 'tis plain the whole Philosophick world had none, or but a very imperfect knowledge of almost all of them; However some, of their lavish Charity, have endeavour'd to squeeze as much from their wri­tings: Nay, that they were not without some knowledge of our greatest Mysteries, viz. of a Messias under their Daimono-Latria, and even of the Trinity in Plato's Triad, and the Resurrecti­on of the body, under the Indians Palin-genesis: But no body that has any veneration either for the Scriptures, or but for Truth in general, but must see and acknowledge that all this is but tor­tur'd from them.

Nor may we deny this further, that whatever Notions of this kind they had, were but traditio­nal [Page 3] in respect of their Origine, and conjectu­ral in reference to their ambiguity and uncer­tainty.

2. The like is to be said of their Rules and Precepts of virtuous living. For we may not de­tract thus much from them, that they have re­commended many excellent Institutes to their Sects. You shall collect among them many ve­ry admirable sayings, such as these;

To know our selves; to abstain from vice; to bear afflictions: to do justly, and speak truly [...]. do as we would be done by; and many more.

Indeed for that kind of Divinity which was deducible from the Rules of common prudence and observation, and depended not chiefly or solely upon Divine Revelation, they have done extraordinary well: And if they had not fur­nish'd us with so many famous examples of Ver­tue too, it would not reflect so much upon the Professors of Christianity, which in the spiritua­lity of its precepts has as far exceeded all that they have writ, as some of their Lives have most of ours; though that be not to be imputed to our Religion, unless it were justly chargeable upon the vitiosity or defect of its Principles or Rules.

Thus miserably however do we compensate the Divine culture; and as if Nature abhorring so great a disparity betwixt mankind, would thus bal­lance [Page 4] the Heathen with the Christian World; by opposing their Imperfect Knowledge, but severer Vertue, to our diviner Laws, but greater licentious­ness in Practice: Many of them having, by as great proportions exceeded us in their endeavours after goodness, as we do them in the knowledge and other means of it.

3. Last of all (which brings it to our present subject) Christianity propounds nothing but up­on the fairest and surest encouragement imaginable. For the happiness of our Religion is both tran­scendently superiour to their discoveries and ac­compts of it; and then also we are sufficiently and unquestionably assur'd hereof, i e. 'tis not recommended to us upon plausible perswasions and inconclusive arguments, but in the genuine sence of St. Paul's expressions, 1 Corinth. 2. 4. in demonstration of the Spirit and Power.

So that we see there is a kind of peculiar excel­lency in the Holy Scriptures, above all the Systems of the greatest Moralists; the foundation of our Obedience being laid upon clearer and better principles, the practice of our obedience being carried higher by the spirituality of its commands, and the rewards of our obedience being incom­parably greater, than what we can conceive, much less could they promise or bestow.

[Page 5] 'Tis the last of these that is contain'd in the Text, and for which I am to be further ac­comptable to ye in the prosecution of the words I have read. And I heard a voice from Hea­ven, saying unto me, Write, Blessed, &c. Where­in we have these following particulars principally to be observed.

1. The happiness of good men describ'd by its general nature, they are blessed, and by its inte­gral parts, they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.

2. The Security and Evidence upon which this happiness is promis'd and asserted, yea saith the Spirit.

3. The time of its perfection and accomplish­ment, partly in this life, but not fully nor com­pletely till death, saying, Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord.

4. And lastly, the Influence which the conside­ration of these premisses ought to have upon us, both in Life and Death, in reference to Obedi­ence and Patience. And

I. To begin with the description of that happi­ness, those rewards, which are propounded to us for the encouragement of our Obedience and Pa­tience: Which are so great, that I am utterly ig­norant by what measures to describe them to ye. [Page 6] The nature of that Celestial bliss as far transcend­ing all our present felicities, by which we should judge of it; as it does the very capacity of our meriting it.

Sir Francis Bacon has observ'd, We can have but a very imperfect accompt of those things, which receed any whit near those extreams of No­thing and Infinity: because either by their parvity or immensity, they elude or confound our know­ledge.

And especially the latter, which choak the understanding; and is like the beholding of the Sun, whose light and lustre, by which we dis­cern other objects, marrs, and dimms our sight.

Such is the transcendent excellency of our fu­ture bliss, at once the delight and amazement of our Intellectuals.

In the description whereof our highest expres­sions are so far from being hyperbolical, that they amount but to a Litotes; so that after our ut­most endeavours we must content our selves with St. Pauls account of it, in his First and Second Epistles to the Corinthians, 1 Ep. c. 2. v. 9. 2 Ep. ch. 12. v. 4. his [...], and his [...], unutterable, for that I take to be the meaning (and not as we render it unlawful) of [...], and also unconceiveable.

[Page 7] So inevitably should we diminish the Glory of Heaven, by any expression, illustration, or parallel whatever.

Which happiness of ours consists of, and is integrated by these two parts.

The total privation of all evil.

And the aggregate enjoyment of all good.

Both which as they are necessarily requisite to the nature of the thing, so are they contain'd in the very notion of the word.

For as the plurality of the Hebrew word [...] [ Ashrei] ostendit omnigenam beatitudinem; so more expresly does the Etymology of the Greek word answer hereunto, [...] either from [...] im­munity from evil, or [...] extremity of joy; and accordingly 'tis describ'd in my Text, first Privatively, and then Positively.

1. For the privative part, Rest from their labours, or which is all one, Immunity from Evil, by which this happiness is oft-times describ'd: for though the privation hereof simply and absolutely signi­fie no part hereof, the absence especially; for by that reason you might call a stock or stone or any other insensible creature happy, as by the other a Horse or Dog might be said to be so when dead: yet inasmuch as it is more than a negation, namely the being deliver'd from a world of mi­sery wherewith we are now infested, and more [Page 8] which we had deserved, and were once obnoxi­ous to, which we also then behold in others of the same make and nature with us; the contem­plation hereof, by which it so widely differs from both the Instances, must needs fill our mind with an ineffable delight and satisfaction.

Or at least if this indolency be no part of our happiness, yet is it so absolutely needful to it, that we cannot tell well how to conceive of it without this; and much less can such a thing be as perfect happiness and degrees of misery con­joyn'd together.

Nor did ever any Sect of Philosophers think otherwise, but those fullen and self-will'd Sto­icks. That ever any body should be so mad to cry out in the extremity of pain and misery, Quàm suave, quàm dulce hoc est, quàm hoc non curo! And I cannot but laugh at Possidonius his Rant, Nil agis, O Dolor, &c.

There are divers instances of such who have born most exquisite miseries even to admiration, as well out of a kind of hardiness of nature, as greatness of mind; and in that they were less mi­serable than the delicate and impatient: but whence was it? either from necessity, or hope, or both; this is Christian-like, but that is bruitish, if it were sufficient without t'other, but 'tis not, for perpetuity would certainly render any evil intole­rable.

[Page 9] So that we are so far from being completely happy as long as any disease or inquietude of mind or body does attend us; that the hope of being delivered is the only argument that can afford us any solid and rational comfort in our afflictions: For as to fatality, hoc ipsum est, said Augustus when one urg'd it; and for the disease of Impatiency, 'tis (as one has excellently observ'd) no proper consideration of comfort, but only an art of managing our trouble; so as not to make it greater than really it is.

2. The other part of our happiness, and in­deed the main, we call positive, and consists in the enjoyment of all good; and is what St. Iohn intends by their works following them; i. e. they shall then receive all those glorious rewards that God has promis'd to good and righteous men for all their service and obedience. We should in vain go about to recount them, they are so many and so great.

In two things the Scriptures chiefly place it; in the vision, and in the fruition of God. This is life Eternal, saith this very St. Iohn in his Go­spel, to know thee the only true God, and Iesus Christ; Joh. 17. 3. and again in his 1 Ep. Ch. 3. v. 2. It doth not yet ap­pear what we shall be; but we know that when he doth appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. The other is call'd the being with Christ, Phil. 1. 23. and the be­ing [Page 10] united to him. St. Iohn 17. 21. That they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. But this is not to exclude the other instances of our happiness, indeed it comprehends all the rest.

For what are all the pleasures and contentments of the World, but as so many rays of that Sun and emanations of that fountain?

They are all contain'd with much more per­fection in God, than they were created in their own natures: Whereupon it follows that they which are admitted into his presence, have all the goodness and perfections of all the creatures in the world united in God.

So that whatever can delight either body or mind, there it is; nor will there be any room to wish for or imagine more than what we have; there being in him (as an ingenious man expres­seth it) such a various Identity, that the fruiti­on of him at once satisfies and creates desires, that without fatiety, this without disquiet.

3. To which if we add the eternal duration of this state, we attribute unto it a kind of compli­cation of Infinities, a potential Infinity in the sub­ject, actual in the object, and eternal in the con­tinuance of it:

Which single consideration is sufficient to ad­vance it to an infinite preference above all earth­ly [Page 11] things imaginable; because these things being founded in matter, and that being in continual flux and motion, here can be nothing perma­nent and lasting. Nor indeed would that be any addition to our present felicity. 'Tis variety that makes these things appear excellent; their mutability, is both the life and death of all pre­sent delights.

A few repetitions make us abhor our food; in less than a night and a day we grow weary of our Beds; and 'tis so in all the other instances of our Nature, and 'tis more so in those of our cor­ruption.

But 'tis otherwise in the attainment of the ulti­mate end, where all our appetites are arrested and detain'd.

Indeed we no sooner experience these things in the fruition, but we straightway nauseate them; finding them so pitifully allay'd with mixtures of evil, and prove so miserably short of what we desire and expect from them. But 'tis otherwise there, the excellency of those Celestial Objects will disappoint our expectation by their transcen­dency, as much as in all other fruitions their em­ptiness is wont to do.

So that Eternity, though but a circumstance which does only superinduce a kind of extremity or perfection to what it is conjoyn'd with; and [Page 12] may as well be drawn in to enhanse our misery, (for what more than this makes the condition of the damn'd so horribly dreadful, whereby they are excluded from all hope, the very seed and lowest degree of felicity?) Yet is it so necessary to what we are speaking of, as that without it those joys of Heaven, though otherwise absolute and infinite, would suffer a contradiction, and become imperfect: And that not only for the fu­ture, but the present, by introducing such passi­ons as must needs debase and allay the highest delights.

So that by being thus secur'd in the possession of our happiness, we receive thereby an un­speakable addition to it.

II. Proceed we next to shew you the Security and Evidence, upon which this happiness is pro­mis'd and asserted, and whether it bear any pro­portion to our duty and the Rewards of it, for so we are allow'd to call them; though not upon the account of merit, yet by reason of their ne­cessary connexion with, dependance upon, and that kind (such a one as 'tis) of proportion they bear to each other.

There is a two-fold evidence God Almighty has given us, for the strengthning of our hope, and confirming of our faith, in the belief and [Page 13] expectation of the other World. The first mo­ral, grounded upon the testimony of the Spirit; the other I call natural, and is grounded in the things themselves.

1. The first evidence of our future bliss, is the testimony of the Spirit, express in the Text, Yea, saith the Spirit. But then we must have a care of what kind of Testimony of the Spirit we understand it: for, understand it as 'tis vulgarly taken, for some act or operation wrought in and upon us, besides the Enthusiasm of it, fain would I be satisfy'd, what validity can there be in such a testimony, as it self needs something else to confirm it? for so this testimony of the Spirit is to be tryed by its con­cordance and agreement to the word of God, nor do I know any other way to distinguish it from a motion or suggestion of the Devil's be­sides. And though to err thus in this single in­stance may not be very pernicious, for I am not mighty solicitous, how it was wrought, so there be a firm perswasion in us of this truth; yet in other cases I know how dangerous it is, nor is it safe in this, for it leaves a passage open and un­guarded to down-right Atheism.

By the testimony of the Spirit therefore I un­derstand the word of God; or the Scriptures as made known and prov'd to us to deriv'd from this Divine Spirit, which we may call the out­ward [Page 14] testimony thereof: for though St. Iohn knew this by the other way, as most certainly all others did who received any Revelation; yet never was any other than the person himself assur'd that way.

Nor do I make degrees of more or less certain­ty in the way or manner of the Spirit's revealing a thing; for the Apostles were as well assur'd of the infallibility of their doctrine before they wrought any miracles, as we are by them: but we were not nor could be so.

But this notwithstanding, in respect of us we must admit of such degrees; for no body I hope will be so blasphemous to equal such private dictates they have in their own breast to the di­vine authority of the Holy Scriptures.

So then I make this to be the moral evidence of future happiness: God hath said it in his word. And this I call a moral certainty, not in oppositi­on to divine and infallible; as they are some­times contradistinguish'd; but only to natural: for we can desire no greater evidence, we cannot have a higher confirmation of any truth, than the veracity of Heaven to attest it.

I do not know any proposition that carries greater self-evidence than this, That God ought to be believ'd in what he says; and therefore though we may question the truth of the Revela­tion, [Page 15] 'tis impossible to do so of any thing we ac­knowledge to be so revealed.

So that the stress of this point lyes upon that great and necessary praecognitum in our Religion; namely, the Divine authority of the Holy Scri­ptures. Upon which postulate if we proceed, there is as great certainty of the truth of this propo­sition, That good men shall enjoy eternal happi­ness after this life; as if we should again hear that Daughter of voice, and God himself should sensi­bly attest it.

2. But there is another ground or evidence of our future happiness which I call natural, because it depends upon that Intrinsick Relation and con­sent there is between goodness and it; the diffe­rence between them being only in degree, like the dawning of the Morning to the lustre of the Noon. For what is it to be happy but to be uni­ted to God? and what does unite us to God but Love? and what is the love of God but Religion? And if you remove but all inward imperfecti­ons, and all outward impediments, there remains no difference at all. So that Virtue and Pie­ty do not only dispose and prepare us for Hea­ven and Salvation, but we thereby receive and experience the very beginnings and anticipations of it.

[Page 16] And though in respect of the mutability of our will and affections toward God and goodness in this world, we cannot be infallibly assur'd of it as to our own particulars; because every alterati­on in the one produceth a like answerable effect as to the other: Yet in the general we may, even from hence, be very well assur'd hereof; be­cause there is nothing more requir'd to the com­pleating of our essential happiness, than an ad­vance and progression in the same vertuous tract.

And however it looks in a Divine, if we will speak rationally to the thing, we must allow the love and hatred of God to be the true natural causes of our salvation and damnation, even of their very eternity; it being naturally im­possible to be other than happy while we love God, and contrariwise if we hate him; and this is the only instant cause of its continuation through all the durations of Eternity. And to remove your astonishment, see, how in this lower world, many stupendous and admirable works are daily produc'd which were mean and un­noted while they lay hid and contain'd in the seminal beginnings; after the same wonderful manner by divers minute gradations does this divine Creature grow up from its first formati­on in our trembling and unstable desires, to [Page 17] the stature and perfection of Everlasting Glory.

And yet there remains less doubt if we take in the Consideration of the Divine na­ture. How else will you vindicate the Ju­stice of God in all the odd and confused oc­currences of this World? Where's your infinite goodness and bounty, that suffers its servants always to be neglected? what will become of an almighty and omniscient Justice if sinners are never call'd to an accompt? Or one, or t'other cannot be.

III. 'Tis true indeed the compleating of this bliss (which brings us to our next head) is nei­ther promis'd, nor to be had in this life. 'Tis at Death these rewards become due and payable.

It has been the constant method of Divine providence, to cause the most excellent things to follow and arise from the most uncouth and unlikely. Thus in the Creation order springs from confusion, and the Light is made to attend the darkness.

Contrary to the methods observ'd by Na­ture, where the causes are ever more worthy [Page 18] than their effects from their first beginning down­ward.

Now as he is pleas'd to transcend and deviate from the tracts and capacities of natural Agents, thereby to assert his Prerogative, and render his omnipotency more conspicuous to the world: So is he no less delighted to use the same recesses in displaying his Grace; evermore ushering in his mercies with the Black Rod, thereby in­hansing and endearing our subsequent refresh­ments.

And though the goodness of those celestial in­habitants, and the happiness of their condition, need neither foyl nor artifice to render that or their acknowledgements of the Divine favour greater: Yet however if we consider these things as a reward and incouragement of our obedience, the proceeding thus is but regular and necessary; that we should do our work before we receive our wages, and finish our undertaking, before we de­mand satisfaction.

Earnest and Security Heaven has vouchsaf'd us, but to deposite the whole in hand, this were, not to encourage but bribe our Obedi­ence. This were to destroy Morality, and turn Vertue into Nature.

[Page 19] Nor yet is the Divine goodness less communi­cable in this life, but we are not so capable of re­ceiving it.

For look as in Nature neither the single excel­lency of the Object or the Agent alone is sufficient to produce any notable effect, but both are re­quir'd: So likewise in Religion, all the effects of the divine grace and bounty (though that be free and infinite) are limited and determin'd by our capacities and reception.

So that while our Appetites, those [...], as they are call'd in Scripture, that are to be the receptacles of all this Glory, are, either reple­nish'd with the vain and sinful objects of this Life, or, are straitned and contracted by the weakness and imperfection of this dull and lum­pish matter, they must be rid of the one and de­vested of the other, and then, we should be in­stantly happy.

You have seen the happiness of the Christian man; there are indeed encouragements of ano­ther nature, namely, earthly blessings and tem­poral rewards, our whole present interest, un­less it happen to interfere at any time with the other. Religion has descended to the securing of these too, and that not only by moral designa­tion, but by a proper and natural efficiency; so that we cannot better prosecute our present inte­rest, [Page 20] than by the methods of Religion. And by this gracious and happy complication of the [...] and the [...] together, they are made to become helpful and assisting to each other, ser­ving reciprocally as a means or motive either to other.

But this encouragement is neither proper nor adequate to Christianity; since it may be as well pursu'd by natural, as by divine rules, better perhaps by diabolical arts than either, nothing experimentally so inriching men, as sordidness, oppression, and other violences and frauds. The Devil in all likelihood, giving the fairest prospect, and most likely possession of the King­doms and glory of this world.

But they are things, I have shewn you, of a nature infinitely more sublime, that Christianity propounds to its observers; The rewards of our Religion, exceeding as well the capacities of our Nature, as all those other things. To the attainment whereof, as all vicious practices are extremely contrary; so have all the o­thers Philosophick transactions been miserably vain.

Some weak and glimmering light the Hea­then had of these things; which it is not certain whether they collected from some fragments of tradition, or extracted from the principles of [Page 21] natural reason; but which way ever it came, it was so weak and imperfect, as serv'd to shadow, not help to discover, but eclipse the transcen­dent excellency of that State; till, as the Great Apostle of the Gentiles saith, 1 Tim. 1. 10. Life and Immor­tality were brought to light by the Gospel.

And indeed without this all other proposals were unsuitable to its professors, and dispro­portionate to the difficulty and severities of Re­ligion. Cicero saith, ‘None ought to be deem'd a vertuous or a just man, that will be allur'd affrighted from his duty, by any advan­tage or disadvantage whatever’: But who, trow ye, would abide both these, upon no other consideration, than barely to have acted according to the sentiments of right Reason, or in hope to acquire an insignificant fame of Ver­tue, of which they could have no knowledge or remembrance after death?

And for this cause I judge the Stoicks more absurd in their morals, than the Epicureans, considering the principles that is upon which they built. For 'tis the premise and not the inference of theirs, that's so urg'd by the Apo­stle, Let us eat and drink, 1 Cor. 15. 32. But now the Christian Religion propunds such overtures to our Obedience and Patience, [Page 22] as may justly and reasonably encourage us thereunto.

IV. For a Conclusion, let us take in the Im­portance of that Phrase of [ dying in the Lord] which relates primarily to Martyrdome; but must also be extended to as many as live and dye in the faith of the Holy Jesus.

The result of all is this: That we would so consider this happiness, as every of our great interest, that we forfeit not our propriety there­in, by a vicious and sinful life. There's no­thing else can render it hazardous or doubtful, but that, which indeed in the very nature of the thing renders it impossible. Let us not repeat Esau's folly, sell our birth-right for a trifle; and for the sake of some pitiful lust proscribe our selves out of our celestial inheritance.

Neither let us contemn our happiness for be­ing feasible. Were wilful poverty and certain Martyrdome, part of our duty, and insepara­ble appendages of our Religion, there is tentati­on enough in the proposals, to make us conflict with the greatest difficulties, and overcome them.

When Christianity was thus attended, and had nothing else to recommend it self to the world, besides the reasonableness of its injuncti­ons, [Page 23] with what holy violence did those blessed Saints storm Heaven, and with a strange eager­ness pursue Martyrdome! But now as if the fervour of our Devotion were only kindled and maintain'd by Antiperistasis: Now I say the Impediments are remov'd, and Religion is be­come a part of our Civil obedience, and made necessary to our secular interests, and guarded with a great many other temporal Phylacteries, men are yet more hardly wrought upon to be Religious, the consideration of a single lust shall be able to weigh down all.

And if any would seem to have a greater zeal for it than ordinary, as if they were in love with the troubles of Religion, and not the thing; they suffer their heat to spend it self in little piques and contentions, and about things of none or ill moment, in maintaining of par­ties, and opposing their Superiours, and not in Devotion, Obedience, Charity, Humility, and the like, as they ought.

In short, Christians, let the thoughts of this blessedness, excite our affections Heaven-ward, and quicken our endeavours: Let it animate us against all difficulties, and buoy us up a­bove all adversities; Let it cheer us in our duty, quiet us in affliction, and comfort us in death. That so living unto Christ, we may [Page 24] at last dye in him, and in the end be for ever blessed.

And now to accommodate all to our present case. It has pleas'd God to take away this extra­ordinary man, for such, considering all things, we must needs allow him; and because 'twas somewewhat early, I think of Dr. Hammond's notion of [...] in the Text, the sooner the better, the better for him, no doubt.

I had once thought to have given you his Cha­racter, but I am not asham'd to tell you, I found me not able to do it worthy of him. And cal­ling to mind a saying of one of the Roman Hi­storians, I soon desisted from any further attempt of it; who when he was reckoning up some of the great men of that age, Virgil and Ovid, Livie and Salust, and going to commend them, stops, and concludes thus: ‘But of men of Eminen­cy, as their admiration is great, so is their cen­sure full of difficulty.’

As to those Relations that are more nearly in­teressed in this solemnity; I would beseech them to remember, that all Indecency and excess of Grief, for our deceased friends, must needs reflect upon the memory of the dead, or the discretion of the survivers. God enable them to bear it: And supply this loss to them by his Grace and Provi­dence: Let me say, and to the Church of En­gland, [Page 25] by increasing the number of such men, of no worse Learning, Integrity, and Courage; that are able, and dare defend her against the encroachments of Popery and Fanati­cisme.

Now to God only wise be Glory through Iesus Christ for ever. Amen.