doth, and be with him where he is. Quest. And where is that? Answ. It is certainly in no ill place: though it be a controversy, whether Christ descended to hell, it is certain that now he is not there; and therefore his members shall not be there. He is certainly in Paradise, for there he promised the converted thief to be that day with him. He is in heaven. (Acts i. 11.) This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. (Acts iii. 21.) "Whom the heaven must receive till the time of restitution of all things." (John xvii.) "And now, O Father, glorify me with thine own self." (Verse xiii.) "And now I come to thee." It is in the glorious presence of God that Christ now abideth in our nature: even at the right hand of God. (Matt. xxvi. 64; Mark xiv. 62, and xvi. 19; Luke xxii. 6, 9; Acts vii. 55, 56; Rom. viii. 34; Eph. i. 20; Col. iii. 1; Heb. i. 3, 13, and viii. 1, and xii. 2, and x. 12; 1 Pet. iii. 22.)

Therefore, though many texts do seem to intimate that he will return to earth again, and that the new Jerusalem shall come down from heaven, and that we look for a new heaven and earth in which righteousness shall dwell, yet these texts do fully prove that faithful souls go presently to Christ who is in heaven, and that there will be no such descent to earth as shall be any diminution of the glory of the saints; for it shall be no diminution of the glory of Christ; and we shall be where Christ will be. If heaven come down to earth, and the veil be drawn, it will be no loss.

66

2. That departed, faithful souls go to him, the Scripture elsewhere also tells us. 66 Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me." (John xvii. 24.) "Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise." (Luke xxiii. 43.) When we 66 fail" here, we shall be received into" the everlasting habitations. (Luke xvi. 9.) "The beggar died, and was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom," (v. 22,) now he is comforted." (Ver. 25.) "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." (2 Cor. v. 1, 8.) "We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the

Lord." (Ver. viii.) (Ver. viii.) "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain having a desire to depart to be with Christ, which is far better." (Phil. i. 21, 22.) "We are come to Mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly, and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant." (Heb. xii. 22-24.) "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, from henceforth, yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them." (Rev. xiv. 13.)

I heap all these texts together for myself as well as you, that we may see that as the faithful shall certainly have a blessed resurrection, so their departing souls at death shall certainly be with Christ in glory. For I take the assurance of the soul's immortality, and felicity at death, to be a point that deserveth as much of our thoughtful diligence, as any one that we have to think of. He is mad that doubteth whether there be a God, if he live with his eyes open in the world and as for Christianity, it is life and immortality which Christ came to secure us of and bring to light. And he that by the light of nature doth but believe the soul's immortality and a life of retribution, is much prepared to be a Christian; so suitable will he find Christianity to our everlasting interest.

But yet all will be dark to men, and seem uncertain till Christ be their teacher, and they truly believe in him, and take it on his certain word.

Truly believe that Jesus is the Christ, and his gospel true, and there is no room for a doubt of the immortality of souls, and future blessedness, so plainly is it expressed in all the gospel. The Socinians, that look for nothing till the resurrection, dream of a dreaming sleep of souls, but dare not talk of any cessation or annihilation of them. For then a resurrection is a contradiction, another soul may be created, but it cannot be the same that was annihilated.

And as no man can believe that Christ speaketh truth and is Christ indeed, but he must needs believe his promise that the faithful soul shall be where he is, so no man can truly believe that all faithful souls, and only such, shall be with Christ and partake of blessedness, but it will constrain him to a life of se rious holiness at least, if it feast him not with the foretaste of heavenly joys. Can you imagine that any man can firmly be

lieve that all and only holy souls go to Christ in glory when they leave the body, and yet not seek first the kingdom of God, and make the securing of this his chiefest care and business in the world? It cannot be every man loveth himself; and no man can be indifferent whether his soul be in heaven or hell for ever. Dulness and present diverting things, may make a man negligent and inconsiderate about lesser matters, where the loss seemeth tolerable; but I cannot believe that if a man be awake and in his wits, any thing but secret unbelief and doubting can make one so dull or inconsiderate about his everlasting joy or misery, as not to make it his chiefest care. For I see that if а man have but a law-suit, on which all his estate depends, or a trial on which his life depends, he cannot forget it or make light of it he will not drink or jest or play away the little time in which his business must be done. And can any one soundly believe that his soul at death shall go to Christ in glory, and not set more by such a hope than by all the riches, and sport, and pleasure, and vain-glory of so short a life as this? Or can any man soundly believe that the wicked and unholy shall go to everlasting punishment, and yet not make it his chief care to escape it? Sure, as mad and bad as man's corrupted mind is, this will scarce stand with human nature. I judge of others by myself: if I had never had at the worst a secret uncertainty whether the gospel be true, and souls immortal, I might have been surprised indeed to a sudden temptation to some sin, but I could never have thought that a man in his wits should choose any life but resolved holiness; nor could I have chosen any other.

If I see a man a careless neglecter of his soul, that maketh no great matter of sin or duty, or maketh not God, and Christ, and heaven the subject of his most serious ruling thoughts, and his greatest business in the world; but showeth us that his health, and wealth, and honour, and pleasure are better loved and more earnestly sought, and faster held; I will not believe that this man taketh the gospel and the soul's future state therein described, to be a certain truth; let him say what he will, he doubteth of it at his heart and such men use to say when they speak out, 'I know what I have here, but I know not what I shall have hereafter: could I keep what I have, I would let others take what is promised in heaven,'

But, O man, thou knowest thou canst not keep what thou hast! Shortly thy soul must be required and called away, and

then whose are the things which thou hast loved? (Luke xii. 19, 20.)

I will therefore say more. Though men had no certainty of dwelling with Christ, and doubted whether his word be true, yet it were worse than madness not to prefer the bare probability (that I say not possibility) of a future endless glory, (when endless misery is probable to the refusers,) before all here that can be set against it. Oh! what is this transitory dream of worldly, fleshly pleasure to everlasting joy or misery! Verily every man at his best estate (in worldly respects) is altogether vanity. (Psalm xxxix. 5.) Oh! mark how emphatical every word is. Verily (it is no doubt) every man high and low, good and bad, in bodily and worldly respects only, at his best or settled estate (not only in pain, and poverty, and age, but in his strength, and wit, and wealth, and honour, on the throne as well as on the dunghill) is vanity. That is an untrusty lie and shadow that seemeth something and is next to nothing, and this altogether (in mere worldly, corporal respects, in all that he hath to glory or take pleasure in.) What need we more to prove all this, than to foresee how the dream and tragedy endeth? A little while we run up and down, and eat and drink, and talk and sport, and sometimes laugh, and sometimes weep, and then change our pomp and pride for a shroud and coffin, and are laid to rot in a grave of earth, where these idol, pampered bodies, be turned themselves into the quality of their darksome habitation. And if these were our best, were not every man at his best estate altogether vanity?

And if a mere probability of the life to come, in reason should resolve all men for serious holiness, how can we think that a certain or firm belief would not do it?

By this, then, it is past doubt, that hypocrisy reigneth in all mere, nominal Christians, and in all that live not a holy life, and, indeed, in most men in the world. They are false in professing to believe, that Christ is true, and his gospel certain truth, and that at death they must go to heaven or hell, if their lives show not that heaven and hell are greater, and more prevailing matters with them, than all the fleshly provisions, pleasures, and glory of this world.

Hypocrites are distinguished from professed infidels; but if they were not unbelievers at the heart, they were not hypocrites in professing faith. The Scripture giveth these titles or attributes therefore to saving faith; it is called, "faith unfeigned,"

or not hypocritical; (1 Tim. i. 5;) and (Philem. 6) it is called "effectual ;" and (Gal. v. 6) "Faith that works by love;" and (James ii.) "Faith that is not dead, but working to perfection;" it is not "unfeigned," if it be not "effectual." You cannot make a man believe that a bear pursueth him, or his house is on fire, or his life in danger, but he will accordingly bestir himself. You cannot draw a man to other business from the care of his life, if he believe that it lieth on his present care.

O sirs, the hypocrite's belief of another world, and his lifeless opinion, conquered by secret unbelief, will shortly fall as an house built on the sand; (Matt. vii. 23;) and no heart can now fully conceive how terrible to him the fall will be. When you see that there is no more tarrying here, and that death and an endless life are come, a dead profession, and secret unbelief, will leave you then to despair and horror. It is not the name of a Christian that will then serve to comfort, or to save your souls. I do not say, that no man shall be saved that hath any doubting, even of the gospel and the life to come; but I say, you cannot be saved, if your belief of it prevail not to engage you in a holy life, and conquer not the flesh, the world, and the devil. It must be a prevailing faith. But, I suppose, you are convinced, that a sound and firm belief of the passage of departing souls to Christ, or unto misery, would certainly resolve men for a holy life; but some say, 'If we be uncertain, how can we help it? We are out of sight, and we have not the command of our own understandings. We would be sure what becomes of souls with all our hearts, but we cannot attain it.'

Answ. Christ came into the world to teach it us; such knowledge is too high and precious to be attained with a slothful wish, or to be had without the use of the means which Christ hath appointed us. Have you learned of Christ, with a humble and teachable, willing mind? Have you not been diverted and blinded by the things which you knew were but deceitful vanity? Have you set your understandings a work with such serious consideration, and so long as the trial of so great a matter doth require ? Have you sought to able and faithful ministers of Christ to help you where you found yourself insufficient? Have you daily begged the help of the Spirit of God, as knowing that heavenly things must be discerned by a heavenly light? Have you honestly obeyed so much as you did know? If you have done this, which reason requireth, I do not think that thus