to Nature in this painful Search after Life and Happiness. The numberlefs Inftances of Mortality which we hear and fee, the Remains of those who left the World Ages before we came into it, and are ftill mouldering in their Tombs, is undeniable Evidence that Death deftroys this compound Being which we call Man. How to revive this Union Nature knows not; and as for those who make the Spirits of Men in the divided State to be perfect Men, they seem to have got a Conclufion without confulting the Premises. Look now into the Gofpel: There you will find every reasonable Hope of Nature, nay every reasonable Sufpicion of Nature, cleared up and confirmed, every Difficulty anfwered and removed. Do the present Circumftances of the World lead you to fufpect that God could never be Author of fuch corrupt and wretched Creatures as Men now are? Your Sufpicions are just and wellfounded: God made Man upright, but thro the Temptation of the Devil Sin entered, and Death and Deftruction followed after. Do you fufpect, from the Success of Virtue and Vice in this World, that the Providence of God does not interpofe to protect the Righteous from Violence, or to punish the the Wicked? The Sufpicion is not without Ground. God leaves his beft Servants here to be tried oftentimes with Affliction and Sorrow, and permits the Wicked to flourish and abound. The Call of the Gospel is not to Honour and Riches here, but to take up our Crofs and follow Chrift. Do you judge, from comparing the present State of the World with the natural Notion you have of God, and of his Justice and Goodness, that there muft needs be another State in which Juftice fhall take place? You reafon right; and the Gospel confirms the Judgment. God has appointed a Day to judge the World in Righteousness: Then those who mourn fhall rejoice, those who weep, fhall laugh, and the perfecuted and, afflicted Servants of God fhall be Heirs of his Kingdom. Have you fometimes Mifgivings of Mind? Are you tempted to mistrust this Judgment, when you fee the Difficulties which furround it on every Side; fome which affect the Soul in its separate State, fome which affect the Body in its State of Corruption and Diffolution? Look to the Gofpel: There these Difficulties are accounted for; and you need no longer puzzle yourself with dark Questions concerning the State, Condition, and Nature G 4 Nature of separate Spirits, or concerning the Body, however to Appearance loft and deftroyed; for the Body and Soul shall once more meet to part no more, but to be happy for ever. In this Cafe the Learned cannot doubt, and the Ignorant may be sure, that 'tis the Man, the very Man himself, who fhall rife again: For an Union of the fame Soul and Body is as certainly the Restoration of the Man, as the dividing them was the Destruction. Would you know who it is that gives this Affurance? "Tis One who is able to make good his Word; One who loved you fo well as to die for you; yet One too great to be held a Prifoner in the Grave: No; he rofe with Triumph and Glory, the first-born from the Dead, and will in like manner call from the Duft of the Earth all thofe who put their Truft and Confidence in him. But who is this, you'll fay, who was fubject to Death, and yet had Power over Death? How could fo much Weakness and fo much Strength meet together? That God has the Power of Life, we know; but then he cannot die: That Man is mortal, we know; but then he cannot give Life. Confider; does this Difficulty deserve an Anfwer, or does it not? Our blessed Saviour lived among us in a low and poor Condition, exposed to much Ill-treatment from his jealous Countrymen: When he fell into their Power, their Rage knew no Bounds: They reviled him, infulted him, mocked him, fcourged him, and at laft nailed him to a Crofs, where by a fhameful and wretched Death he finished a Life of Sorrow and Affliction. Did we know no more of him than this, upon what Ground could we pretend to hope that he will be able to fave us from the Power of Death? We might fay with the Disciples, We trufted this had been be who should have faved Ifrael; but he is dead, he is gone, and all our Hopes are buried in his Grave. If you think this ought to be answered, and that the Faith of a Chriftian cannot be a reasonable Faith, unless it be enabled to account for this feeming Contradiction; I befeech you then never more complain of the Gospel for furnishing an Answer to this great Objection, for removing this Stumblingblock out of the Way of our Faith. He was a Man, and therefore he died: He was the Son of God, and therefore he rofe from the Dead, and will give Life to all his true Disciples. He it was who formed this World and all Things in it, and for the fake of Man |