but Fools; and whilft he will needs be thought wifer than all Men for denying it; he yet contends with all earnestness, that the thing which he denies, and others believe, is a thing which no Body can know, whilft he lives, whether it be fo or

no.

2. We are here taught very plainly, That the Souls of Men after Death are not all in one and the fame ftate and Condition; no, not in the interval between the Hour of Death, and the Day of Judgment. They do not fleep all this while, neither are they infenfible of good or evil; they are not all happy, nor all miferable; but fime of them are comforted, and others tormented.

3. We are taught as plainly, That fuch as we are in this Life, good or bad, fuch alfo fhall our future ftate be immediately after Death, a state of Comfort or of Torment. Good Men fhall be comforted, and evil Men tormented.

These Things I fay, our bleffed Saviour, and his holy Apostles after him, have very plainly commended to our Faith. And we are left, as lon as we live, to confider wifely of them; and to choofe whether we will believe them or no. But who fees not, that it is at our Peril? If we be refolved, because we think that we have not all the Evidence that might have been given us of them, to put all to the venture, we may do fo. But before we be fo daring, I fhould think it our Wisdom impartially to weigh the Matter a little in our most serious Thoughts, and not to conclude too hastily. Let us therefore, as many as think our felves worth our own care, think of thefe few Things.

1. If there be fuch a future ftate of Comfort or Torment; and if either the one, or the other, muft

be the ftate of every one of us when we go out of this World; do we not really think it a matter of greatest Concernment to us, that we should be in time foretold of it, and have fome warning given us beforehand to provide as well as we can for our felves? Do not we think it very fit, we should have fome Directims given us, what course to take whilft we live, that we may escape the torments, and make fure of the comfort which is to come? I hope no Man can be fo wholly regardlefs of himfell, as to deny this to be a Thing ve ry defirable, on fuppofition, that there be fuch a ftate as either of thefe remaining for us all after Death; or not to think it a very great kindness in our bleffed Saviour fo plainly and fully, to inform and direct us as he hath done. If there be a future ftate of Comfort for good Men, and another of Torment for evil Men, and I know nothing of it, and through Ignorance live wickedly, I fhall fall into the ftate of Torment for want of timely warning of it, or directions given me how to prevent it. And therefore I cannot but judge it a matter of great Concernment to me to be well inform'd before-hand. For

2. Can we poffibly come to any certain and diftinct knowledge of thefe two States any other way, than by Divine Revelation. It is true, that by the Light of Nature we may be fatisfied that there is a God, and that we, being rational Creatures, are bound to live in Obedience to him, and that he will Reward the Obedient, and punish the Difobedient; and because it doth not appear, that he doth fo always in this Life, that therefore he will do it after Death. But now bow, or where, or how long he will thus Punish or Reward, no Man can do any more but Conjecture and Guess. No

Art

Art or Study can clearly discover these things unto us; the wifeft of the Heathens were herein at a great lofs, and as much divided in their Opinions about these things, as they were United in their Opinion of a twofold future State in general. Which we need not here prove, because, more than this, and more than we can accept, is Confefs'd and Granted by them who disbelieve the Holy Scriptures, to wit, That no Man can tell what the State of Dead Men is. No Man can tell it indeed but by the help of Divine Revelation. By the help of this Men have been enabled to give us good Affurance of it, and there is no need of what our Modern Infidels have learn'd of the Rich-man in the Parable to demand, That one may be fent from the Dead to inform us.

3. Would we not be too apt to blafpheme the Goodness and Justice of God too, had he made us fuch as we are, and yet told us nothing of what we are to expect after Death. He hath made us of fuch a Nature, that we would fain know what's yet to come, as well as what's prefent ; what we shall be hereafter, as well as what we are now. We are apt to Long and Defire, to Hope and fear, in relation to things to come; and finding that all Men die, we are concern'd naturally to think, what we shall be when we are dead; and thefe thoughts, as they are natural, fo are they very troublefome and tormenting to us, fo long as we labour under this uncertainty. Would we not therefore think, that God dealt very hardly with us, and not fuitably to the nature he had given us, if he had left us altogether in the dark, and given us no notice of what he had defign'd for is after this life? If he had not acquainted us with what we are to expect hereafter, and if he K 3

had

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had not told us his mind what he would have us to do here, we fhould have been apt to think he dealt not with us agreeably either to our nature, or that notion which we have of his Goodness,

4. Why then, now that God hath told us by his Son, what remains for us after death, are we not willing to believe it? What fhould God do with a People of our Temper; who confess the things which we are told to be of the greatest concernment in the World for us to know; and think it highly reasonable that God fhould not leave us in ignorance of them; yea, that it is inconfiftent both with his nature, and our own, that he fhould do fo; and yet after all, when they are as fully and plainly as fuch things can be revealed unto us, and we have nothing to object with any ftrength of reafon against the truth of the revelation, will we not believe what is told us?

Who would willingly be in fuch a doubtful Condition when he comes to die, to think that he is leaving this World, to go he knows not whither? Good God! What a perplexity, and diftraction of Mind muft one at that time be in, if he be not fome way or other ftupified, and can think of nothing at all, to find himself stepping out of this World never to fee it any more, and not to know whether he fhall not immediately drop down into an unquenchable fiery Furnace; whether he fhall be fomething or nothing; what he had hitherto been, or fomething else; in comfort, or in torment; for a time only, or for eternity? Into what a confufion must this put a thinking Man? If one will now, by difregarAng all that he is told by fo credible a Perfon as

the

the bleffed fefus, whofe very life on Earth feem'd' nothing elle but Miracle and Love, chofe to be in this condition of uncertainty and doubt when he is going out of this World, and fo if there prove to be a better, and a worse, after death, make the worfe fure unto himfelf; fuch an one is to be given over as a mad man, whofe cafe, how foever we may pity him, is too defperate to admit of any cure.

But now, if all this be true, which we are here taught by our gracious Saviour, concerning the future State of Men, then thefe two things do neceffarily hence follow.

1. That wicked Men have all the comforts, that ever they must expect to have, now in this World whilft here they live; there are none at all for 'em, not fo much as the refreshment of one Drop of Water, to be hoped for after their Souls are once gone out of their bodies. Now (faith Abraham to the Rich-man) thou art tormented. Whatever good things fell to thy fhare, thou haft already had them all in thy life-time. But now after that Life is ended, expect nothing at all but torments. O, what a difmal change is there here! Had he only loft all his Comforts at once, it had been more tolerable. But that's not all, as he must not expect ever to have any more Good things, fo he must for ever suffer Evil things. He muft be tormented, not only with the fenfe of his lofs, and with defpair of ever recovering any part of what he had loft, or of enjoying any other good thing instead of what is loft; but alfo with a fenfe of pains, even the bittereft of Pains, like that of Frying in unquenchable flames.

Here let the brutifh Epicure fit down, and think a little of this. Let him caft up his Accounts,

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