reign Country should be commanded immediately to leave the Country, unless he would forfwear ever returning to his own Country again; would not a wife Man confider, that if he had not been commanded to leave that Country, he did not intend to have stayed long in it; and therefore it would be an unaccountable Folly and Madness in him to abjure his own Country, where his Father, and Kindred, and Inheritance are, only to gratify his Curiofity in staying a little longer there? And can we then think it a hard Command, (when we know we must shortly die, and leave this World, that whether we will or no, we cannot ftay long in it,) to facrifice our very Lives, rather than renounce our Hopes of Heaven and a better Life? When we know that we muft leave this World, what does it fignify to die a little fooner than it may be in the Course of Nature we should, to obtain an immortal. Life; to go to that bleffed Jefus who lived in this World for us, and died for us, and is ready to receive us into that blessed Place where he is, that we may behold his Glory? I am fure it is a very foolish Thing for a Man who must die, to forfeit an immortal Life, tỏ reprieve a mortal and perishing Life for fome few Years.

II. As Death, which is our leaving this World, proves that these present Things are not very valuable to us, fo it proves that they are not the most valuable Things in their own Natures; tho' we were to enjoy them always,

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it would be but a very mean and imperfect State, in Comparison of that better Life which is referved for good Men in the next World: For, 1. It is congruous to the divine Windom and Goodnets, that the best Things fhould be the moft lafting: Widom dictates this; for it is no more than to give the Preference to thofe Things which are beit. The longeft Continuance gives a natural Preference to Things; we always value thofe Things moft, which we shall enjoy longeft; and therefore to give the longest Duration to the worft Things, is to fet the greateft Value on them, and to teach Mankind to prefer them before that which is better. What we value moft, we defire to enjoy longeft, and were it in our Power we would make fuch Things the most lafting; which fhews that it is the natural Senfe of Mankind, that the beft Things deferve to continue longeft; and therefore we need not doubt, but that infinite Wildom which made the World, has proportioned the Continuance of Things to their true Worth. And if God has made the beft Things the moft lafting, then the next World in its own intrinfick Nature is as much better than this World, as it will last longer. For this is moft agreeable to the Divine Goodness too, and God's Love to his Creatures, that what is their greatest and trueft Happiness fhould be most lafting. For if God has made Man capable of different Degrees and States of Happiness, of living in this World and in the next, it is

an

an Expreffion of more perfect Goodness (as it is moft for the Happinefs of his Creatures) that the most perfect State of Happiness fhould laft the longest; for the more perfectly happy we are, the more do we experience the Divine Goodness; and he is the most perfectly happy, who has the longest Enjoyment of the best Things.

2. It seems most agreeable alfo to the Divine Wisdom and Goodnefs, that where God makes fuch a vaft Change in the State of his Creatures, as to remove them from this World to the next, the laft State fhould be the moft perfect and happy. I fpeak now of fuch Creatures as God defigns for Happiness, for the Reafon alters where he intends to punish. But where God intends to do good to Creatures, it seems a very impoper Method to tranflate them from a more perfect and happy, to a lefs happy State. Every Abatement of Happiness is a Degree of Punishment, and that which thofe Men are very fenfible of, who have enjoyed a more perfect Happinefs: And therefore we may certainly conclude, that God would not remove good Men out of this World, were this the happieft Place.

Yes, you'll fay, Death is the Punishment of Sin, and therefore it is a Punishment to be removed out of this World; which spoils that Argument, that this World is not the happieft Place, becaufe God removes good Men "out of it: For this is the Effect of that Curfe

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which was entailed on Mankind for the Sin of Adam, Duft thou art, and to Duft thou shalt return.

Now I grant, Death, as it fignifies a Separation of Soul and Body, and the Death of both, which was included in that Curfe, was a Curfe and a Punishment, but not as it fignifies leaving this World, and living in the

next.

We have fome Reafon to think, that tho' Man fhould never have died, if he had not finned, yet he should not always have lived in this World. Human Nature was certainly made for greater Things than the Enjoyments of Senfe: It is capable of nobler Advancements, it is related to Heaven, and to the World of Spirits; and therefore it seems more likely, that had Man continued innocent, and by the constant Exercise of Wisdom and Virtue improved his Faculties, and raised himself above this Body, and grown up into the Divine Nature and Life, after a long and happy Life here, he should have been tranflated into Heaven as Enoch and Elias were, without dying. For had all Men continued innocent, and lived to this Day, and propagated their Kind, this little Spot of Earth had many Ages fince been over-peopled, and could not have fubfifted, without tranfplanting fome Colonies of the most divine and purified Souls into the other World.

But however that be, it is certain, that being removed out of this World, and living in Heaven,

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Heaven, is not the Curfe: This fallen Man had no Right to; for he, who by Sin had forfeited an earthly Paradife, could not thereby gain a Title to Heaven. Eternal life is the gift of God, through Jefus Christ our Lord; it is the Reward of good Men, of a well-spent Life in this World, of our Faith and Patience in doing and fuffering the Will of God; it is our last and final State, where we fhall live for ever; and therefore the Argument is ftill good, that this World cannot be the happieft Place, for then Heaven could not be a Reward. Though all Men are under the Neceffity of dying, yet if this World had been the happiest Place, God would have raised good Men to have lived again in this World; which he could as eafily have done, as have tranflated them to Heaven.

Now if this World be not the happiest Place, if prefent Things be not the most valuable, as appears from this very Consideration, that we must leave this World, (for to this I must confine my Discourse at prefent) there are several very good Ufes to be made of this: As, 1. To rectify our Notions about prefent Things. 2. To live in Expectation of fome better Things. 3. Not to be overconcerned about the Shortnefs of our Lives here.

1. To rectify our Notions about prefent Things. 'Tis our Opinions of Things which ruin us: For what Mankind account their greatest Happiness, they must love, and they

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