Heb. iv. 9.

And this is a Deliverance that at the worst, the Good Man may furely promise himself. Men may deprive him of any thing else, but all the Tyrants upon Earth cannot deprive him of Death; That will in due Time, be fure to come to his Rescue, to give him a happy Issue out of all his Troubles.

This then is Part of the Happiness of the Good Man, the Blessedness that commonly attends his Goodnefs, Peace in this World both in Life and Death; efpecially Inward Peace. As fuch Men take the properest Course, and lay the beft Foundation for Peace, fo they Commonly reap the Fruits of it: I fay Commonly, and for the most Part; for there may be fome Exceptions and particular Cafes, wherein Good Men may fail of Peace in this World either Living or Dying, or poffibly in Both; as in the Cafe of Religious Melancholy, or other Distemper of Mind; or upon wrong Notions of God and Religion, and the like; or it may be to keep them Watchful and Humble, or elfe for fome Unknown Reasons of Providence, ordering all for their Advantage in the End.

But if they fhould fail of Peace Here, Still there remaineth a Reft (fays the Apostle,) to the People of God; a Future State of Sure and Certain Reft, wherein they fhall not fail of Peace, and Peace for evermore, in thofe Heavenly Mansions of Reft and Peace;

to

I

to which they are graciously invited by the God of all Grace, who hath called Us to his 1 Pet. v. Eternal Glory by Chrift Jefus; Him they 10. have calling upon them in his Gospel with the Voice of Mercy and Bowels of Compaffion.- Come unto me, all ye that La-Mat.xi.2. bour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you Reft.And another Voice they hear from Heaven founding in their Ears, saying, Blessed are the Dead which Dye in the Rev. xiv. Lord, for they Reft from their Labours. And This brings me to the

III.

III and Laft Thing to be confidered, the Peace and Happiness of Good Men in the other World; which is the End and Confummation of all, and the proper Time and Place of Rewards.

Both the Comforts and the Miseries of This Life are sometimes so distributed, as if they were scatter'd promifcuously, and with an Undiftinguishing Hand; So little a Value does Providence fet upon the Things of this World, as that it has not thought fit to Diftinguish Men thereby. But the End of all thefe Things is at Hand, and Then is the Time that God will distinguish the Wheat from the Tares, the Sheep from the Goats; and Then fhall every Good Man have Praife of God. That is the Day when God maketh up his Jewels, as the Prophet Malachi expreffes it, Chap. iii. 16. Then they that

Fear'd

13.

Fear'd the Lord fpake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it; and a Book of Remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his Name: And they shall be Mine, faith the Lord of Hofts, in that Day when I make up my Jewels.Then shall ye Return and Difcern betwixt the Righteous and the Wicked; Betwixt Him that Serveth God, and him that ferveth him not. Then are Good and Bad Men fufficiently, and for ever Distinguish'd, when the Wicked hall go away (as our Saviour tells us,) into EverMat. xxv. lafting Punishment, and the Righteous into Life Eternal, there to receive the Fruit of Ifa.xxxii. their Righteoufnefs; and the Fruit of Righteousness, the Prophet tells us, shall be Peace, and the Effect of Righteousness, Quietness and Affurance for ever.

46.

17.

I fhall not undertake to defcribe either of these States, either that of Sinners in Hell, or that of Good Men in Heaven after Death. These are Things which as yet we know but in part, and fee only, as through a Glass, darkly. But That which the Wicked have Reason to Fear, from what the Holy Scriptures have Declar'd and Threatned, is, That they fhall not for ever Sleep in the Duft, but fhall be raised from the Grave, to be Sentenc'd for their Evil Deeds, to a State of Endlefs Woe and Misery; Wherein they shall be utterly forfaken of God, and overwhelm'd

with Horror and Despair, under the Senfe of his Wrath; And left to the Rage and Malice and Infults of Devils; and to the Racks and Tortures and Revengeful Lashes of their own Guilty Confcience, as Mercilefs as They: And to abide in this wretched dismal State without Eafe or Comfort, without Help or Hope, without Refpite or Abatement of Torture or Anguifh, either of Body or Soul, Suffering the Vengeance of Eter- Jude 7. nal Fire, for more than Millions of Ages ; even to all Eternity. All which is the leaft that can be understood by utter Darkness, and the Bottomlefs Pit, by Hell-fire, and Fire that never shall be quenched; by Furnaces of Fire; and Lakes of Fire and BrimStone; by Weeping and Wailing, and gnashing of Teeth; with a Worm ever gnawing, and never dying, &c. These are the most dreadful Things that we can poflibly form any Notion of, and therefore are made use of to Represent and Express to us the Portion of the Hypocrite and Unbeliever, the Punishment of the Wicked and ungodly for

ever.

But the End of the Good Man, the Perfect and Upright Man, we are told, is Peace ; fuch a Bleffed End as confifts in all Sorts of Happiness to the Height, fuch as no Tongue can Express it; no Heart conceive it; fuch as is beyond the Reach even of our Thoughts: Neither our Eyes nor Ears have ever seen or heard

heard any Thing like it. When the Holy Ghoft would give us fome kind of Faint Refemblance of it, fuch as our present Conceptions are capable of, it is exprefs'd in the highest Terms, and noblest Ideas of Happinefs, Joy and Glory, that we as yet know any thing of.-Paradifes, Treafures, Inheritances; not Earthly Paradifes, nor Earthly Inheritances, or Treasures, but Eternal in the Heavens, which fail not : -Nay Crowns and Kingdoms; and that not like those of this World, but a Kingdom that cannot be moved; a Crown of Glory which fadeth not away. These, and all other the Characters we have of Heaven, do at least speak it to be a Place and State of the most Confummate Joy and Happiness; where the Righ Dan, xii.3.teous, and they that turn many to Righteoufnefs fhall fhine as the Brightness of the Firmament, and as the Stars for ever and ever. But our Saviour, the Lord of Glory, does still advance their Glory, when he tells Mat. xiii. us, that they fhall fhine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father: But without a Figure, thus much we may gather from the Scriptures Plainly, that those that shall be thought meet to be made Partakers of that Bleffed State, fhall have their Confummation in Bliss: They fhall have their whole Nature, Soul and Body, rais'd to their highest Degree of Perfection, and no longer capable of any Defilements by Sin. All the Facul

43.