3. The certainty of both these, life and death, hell and heaven, as the fruits of good and evil.
[1.] Reason showeth it certainly that there is eternal life and death, or a state of torment and bliss after this life. All men are persuaded that there is a God, and very few have doubted but that he is a rewarder of virtue and a punisher of vice. Now, neither the one nor the other is fully accomplished in this world, even. in the judgment of those that have no great knowledge of the nature of sin, nor what punishment is competent thereto. Therefore there must be after the sojourning in the body a time in which retributive justice shall be executed, and punishments and rewards that liere are dispensed so disproportionably, even to what natural reason would expect from the hand of God, shall most equally be dispensed to persons. If any say virtue is a reward to itself, as in some sense it is, yet the full reward lieth in another world, and the main encouragements must be fetched from thence. There is an opposite principle against it in the heart, which must always be curbed and suppressed, and it meeteth with many temptations from the reproaches and oppositions of those who like not this sort of life. The sensual and ungodly will use all ways and means to brand the holy and heavenly as an humorous sort of men ; and if
DeUT. XXX. 15.] THE SEVENTEENTH SERMON. 363
their hands be tied by tlie restraint of laws and government, so that we are not exposed to sufferings by their violence, yet we cannot but expect slanderous abuses from them. Now, the case being so, the motives must be sufficient to resist all the temptations of this life, to keep us in the love and obedience of God to the end, which the bare sense of our duty would hardly do in the midst of so many temptations. We are in a state of imperfection, and sense is very strong in us all, and the sufferings of the obedient are very great, that if we had not an eye to the recompense of the reward, we could not so well deny our- selves. Let every man consult his own soul, what would support him when all the world is against him, and he is hooted by the clamours of the wicked rabble, and pursued with sharp laws, and exposed to great difficulties and hardships ; if he had no life to live but this, what would he do ? Besides, it will not stand with the goodness of God, if you can suppose one that loves goodness for goodness' sake, and is so hardy as to contemn all his natural interests, that such a man should be a loser by his faithfulness and obedience to God, and be made altogether miserable by his duty without recompense, 1 Cor. XV. 19. And upon another account his goodness is engaged to take his servants into his own blessed presence ; for the prevailing inclina- tion of holiness, that is planted by his own hand in their breath, to love, serve, and see him, is an earnest that we shall not always be thus imperfect ; for our reward consisteth, as of complete felicity, so exact holiness, seeing God, and being like unto him : 1 John iii. 2, ' We know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' But suppose this were true, that virtue were a reward to itself, then what provision is there made for the punish- ment of vice ? Cannot it be said, that they that addict themselves to that course of life are punished enough by doing so ? Alas ! wicked men profess great contentment in that course of life which they lead, and would be glad of the news that they should have no other punish- ment than to wallow in their lusts. Nature teacheth us, and the practice of all nations confirmeth it, that evils which consist in a breach of duty must be punished with afflictive evils painful to nature. Never such a lawgiver was heard of that would punish a man for robbery by causing him to commit adultery. And for virtue, though it hath a beauty to draw our love, yet it cannot itself be its own price and recompense, for man is of such a nature as he is still drawn on with the hope of some further good, till he come to the enjoyment of the chiefest good. And so many are the trials of the righteous in this world, that the apostle telleth us ' Y/e were of all men most miserable, ' if our hopes were only in this life/ 1 Cor. xv. 19. The calamities of the good are as great a discouragement and offence as the prosperity of the wicked, therefore there is an estate of life and death to come. Besides, if man be God's subject, employed by him in a course of duty and service, when his work is ended then must he look to receive his wages, accordingly as he performed his duty or faulted in it. Now our work is not ended till this life be over ; then God dealeth with us by way of recompense either in pains or joys. Add further, reason will tell us that these pains and joys after death should be ever- lasting, that the recompense should last as long as man lasts. For