inconceivable Happiness of another Life; and we must either put off our Reason, or employ it in purfuing thofe Interests which do fo greatly and fo nearly concern us.

Let us be fo brave and generous as not to think that we die like the beafts that perish; that we were made for greater and more noble Ends, intended for the Favour of God, and Society of Angels; that we carry about with us fpiritual Beings which cannot die, and will receive no Prejudice by the Diffolution of the Body; that these Souls were defigned by God to receive a Participation of his own Glory, and will certainly do so, if they be not debarr'd from it by our fatal Stupidity and Neglect; and that in providing for this more excellent Part of us, we fecure likewife a Manfion for the Body, which at the general Refurrection fhall be received into the fame Station, and undergo the fame Fate with the Soul.

If we were perfectly perfuaded of theTruth of all this, we could not confign our felves up to pursue the Vanities of the World, and heap up Riches, which are of no Service for the Interefts of another Life, and promote not our real Happiness in this. Can you be fuppofed to believe all this, and at the fame Time employ your Lives upon the Practice of the contrary; hope for the Perfection defigned, and make no Step towards the Attainment of it? Rather

let

let us endeavour with our utmost Vigor to maintain that Degree which God hath affigned to us among created Beings; and not by our Degeneracy become the vileft and moft miferable of all Creatures. Let us do nothing unworthy that noble Being which is feated within us, nor cloath the Body with the Spoils of it. Let us maintain the Dignity and Character of our Natures by a fevere and unblemish'd Integrity, and procure to our felves an Affurance of those Perfections which are allotted to us. Certainly in worldly Matters, we willingly overfee leffer and more trivial Gains, for obtaining of a greater and more fubftantial Profit; and fhould we not flight the impertinent Gayeties, and vile Allurements of the World, to fecure to our felves a treafure which fadeth not, eternal in the Heavens?

Laftly, If the Benefits of the Soul be ever preferable to the Interefts of the Body; if all the Glories and Riches of this World be of fmall Account, when oppofed to the Happiness of the next; if the Favour of God, and Concerns of Religion, be the only true Perfections of Mankind: A firm Conftancy in the Exercife and Profeffion of Religion, although attended in this Life with the greatest Inconveniences, Difcouragements and Afflictions, will not only be our Duty, but our highest Interest. This is the natural Confequence of the Words

I

Words of my Text, and the Conclufion which our Saviour himself drew from them in the following Verfe, with which I fhall conclude, Whosoever therefore shall be afbamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and finful generation; of him alSo fhall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the Holy Angels.

SER

SERMON IX.

Preach'd on the 20th of November, 1689. at Lambeth Chapel.

St. LUKE XVI, 31.

If they hear not Mofes and the Prophets, neither will they be perfuaded, though one rofe from the dead.

T

HESE Words are the Conclufion of a remarkable Parable of our Saviour, and seem to be the Scope to which his whole Difcourfe was therein directed; to fhew the Vanity of that Pretence; wherewith unreasonable Men have been wont to defend or excufe their Sins; the Uncertainty of the Rewards and Punishments of another Life, arifing from the defect of a visible Experience of them, or an undeniable. Attestation of the Truth of them by conftant Miracles.

It was not for the peculiar Doctrines of Christ alone, that the Jews required a Sign to be given to them, to demonftrate the

Truth

Truth of them; but alfo in their ancient and received Doctrines they entertained Scruples, because not confirmed by a conftant Continuation of the fame Miracles, which at first established them. An Incredulity, as it should feem, Hereditary to the Jews, and renewed as often as the Divine Miracles were interrupted. No fooner was Joshua dead, and that Generation which had feen all the great works of the Lord which he had done for Ifrael, as we are told in Judges ii. but the next Generation even loft the Knowledge of God, they knew not the Lord, as it is there expreffed: And although Miracles were continued down among them by the Miniftration of the Prophets and Holy Men; yet as these could be vifible but to a certain Number, they produced no univerfal Influence, affected not the reft; and even in those who saw them, they seemed to have produced no other Effect than Wonder and Amusement. They ftill continued their Disbelief of thofe Promises and Threats, which they faw not yet effected, and of that future State which they did not yet perceive.

And it were to be wished that this Incredulity of the Jews had been fo hereditary to them, as to be peculiar to them; but it hath found Place even among Christians alfo; many of whom have even renounced aud denied their Faith, because themselves could not fee thofe Miracles, upon the Au

thority