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who like a Doctrine never the better for SER M. being theirs; and then to proceed to lay down the true and primary Notion of the fame State, as it is delivered to us in Holy Scripture, and by the ancientest Writers and Fathers of the Church. My Bufinefs therefore is

I. FIRST negatively, to disprove that the Souls of the Deceased are at present either in Heaven, or Hell; or in that perfect Degree of Happiness or Misery, which they are to be in hereafter. And then

II. In the SECOND. Place, pofitively to declare (I mean as far as the Scriptures enable us) in what Place and Condition they are.

I. The FIRST of thefe Heads I believe is more than I fhall be able to compass in one Discourse. To this therefore I propofe to confine myself wholly at prefent; and to introduce me to it have chose those Words of the inspired Author to the Hebrews which I have read for my Text. And how proper a

Text this is to lead me to the Doctrine I would defend, a fhort Review of the Context will fhew. In the Clofe of the Chapter immediately foregoing, the Holy Penman exhorts

his

SERM. his Hebrews not to fhrink back from the XVIII. Profeffion of their Faith, because they had not a prefent Recompence for their Sufferings and Pains; but to endure with Patience, which was neceffary to entitle them to the promised Reward, and to which he encourages them by affuring them that He that fhall come, will come in a little while, and will. not tarry, Heb. xi. 37. i. e. The Meffiah, or Jefus Chrift, who is to come again in the End of the World to confer Rewards on all that wait for him with Faith and Patience, shall most affuredly come at the appointed Time, when all things are prepared, and beyond which Time he shall not stay. But left the Hebrews fhould think even this too long to wait; he proceeds in this Chapter, whence I have taken my Text, to animate them from the Examples of the Reverend Patriarchs and Fathers of old, who had fuffered much in Times long past, and yet were still content to wait for that Promife, which Chriftians, as born in the last Age of the World, might hope foon to obtain. With this View he calls to their Memories the heroick Transactions of Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, of Abraham and Sarah, of Ifaac and Jacob, of Joseph and Mofes, of Rabab, and of many others, whom

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he wanted Time to enlarge on, fuch as Gideon, SER M. and Barak, and Samfon, and Jephtha, such as David alfo and Samuel, and the rest of the Prophets All of them Names venerable for their Antiquity, and renowned for their Faith; who yet, notwithstanding all they did and all they fuffered, ftill waited, even then, when the Penman wrote, for their final Reward: They had not received the Promife made to their Sufferings and Faith, but expected till the Number of the Chofen and Elect of God fhould be fulfilled under both Difpenfations, when all together (and not any one before another) should have their Happiness rendered perfect and complete. For fo faith my Text, Thefe all having obtained a good Report through Faith; i. e. the Scriptures bearing Witness that by Virtue of their Faith, they were all acceptable to God, they did not however receive the Promife, the Rewards enfured to them were not yet conferred upon them, God having provided fome better thing for us that were born under the New Teftament, i. e. doing us Honour, by keeping them in a State of Expectation and Delay, till we and all that are still to be born, fhall be ready to enter into, and enjoy, the Promises with them: That fo even they, who first finished

SER M. their Labours, fhould not without us be made perfect, i. e. not till we shall be perfected too.

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So that we fee it is the Doctrine of my Text (if I have rightly represented the Doctrine of it here) that the Patriarchs and Fathers of the Old Teftament, even those of them that have been, the longest of all, in a separate State, are not yet so happy, as one Day they expect to be ; when they and all the Righteous Souls, that have entered already, or shall hereafter enter at any Time the Regions of the Dead, shall at once be received, at the Refurrection of the Juft, into perfect Glory.

It is true indeed, that they who are of a différent Opinion from us, and who place the Distinction between the present and the future State of the Bleffed, in their having, or not having, their Bodies only, interpret the being made perfect in my Text, of the Refurrection alone, which is to perfect the Saints. And that the Saints fhall indeed be perfected then, we are as willing to grant, as they to afk. But that any Part of them is perfected before, or that even their Souls are yet in Heaven; this is the Doctrine which they affirm and we deny: Which we deny upon the Authority of the Text we are now confidering, and in which we have the ancient Fathers

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on our Side. For thus St. Chryfoftom, fpeak- SER M. ing of Abel and Noah, God, (faith he): * to the End that they might not be crowned without us, has appointed one Time of Coronation for us all. Thus again Theodoret They have not yet received their Crowns, because God defers it till others have combated, that fo he may proclaim them all Conquerors at once †. And thus laftly Origen, having cited this very Place, draws this Inference immediately from it. You fee (faith he) that Abraham yet expects to receive Perfection; that Ifaac allo and Jacob and all the Prophets wait for us, that with us they may obtain their perfect Happiness. Even the Apostles themselves have not yet received their Foy, but stay for me to be Partaker with them: Neither do the Saints that now depart, immediately enter upon the Reward of their Deferts, but ftdy and wait for us, though we defer and delay our Coming‡. -Thefe Expreffions cannot be intended only of the Refurrection of the Bodies of the Saints hereafter: They must be understood of the Perfection and Happiness of their Souls, which thofe an