[8.] Consider how certain and sure these invisible things are which lie in the other world. There wanteth nothing but this to strike the temptation dead which ariseth from temporal things ; for since these invisible things are greater and more durable, why should they not prevail more with us ? The reason is, we see, feel, taste the one ; but the other lie out of sight in an unknown world, and so we doubt of them, or our persuasions about them are very weak. But to check this disease, consider what help is offered to you — (1.) By the light of nature, which showeth it may be ; (2.) The light of Christianity, which showeth it shall be.
(1.) The light of nature will offer proof enough to make us more serious than ever we have been ; for —
(IsL) If there be not a world to come, and a state of invisible happi- ness and unseen glory, why is it that such a conceit hath been rooted in the minds of men of all nations and religions ? not only Greeks and Romans, but barbarians and people least civilised. Herodotus telleth us that the ancient Getes thought their souls perished not when they died, but went to Tamolxis ; and Diodorus Siculus, of the Egyptians, that their parents and friends went to some eternal habita- tion ; and the modern heathens, but newly discovered, hold the con- dition of men and beasts different ; that they subsist after life, and have a being, is their firm persuasion ; and therefore are wont to assign to the dead part of the goods which they possessed. And Acosta telleth us that in Peru they are wont to kill some of their slaves to attend the dead in the world to come. Thus in a manner all nations have received this tradition from hand to hand, from their ancestors ; and the nearer to the first original of mankind, the more clear and pressing hath been the conceit hereof. Lapse of time, which decayeth all things, hath not been able to deface it out of the minds of men, who though they have been gradually depraved and degenerated, according to the distance by which they have been removed from their first
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290 SERMON UPON 2 CORINTHIANS IV. 18.
originals, yet they could never blot out the sense of an estate after this life. An universal tradition is some argument, when there can be no solid and indubitable reasons brought to convince it of falsity. Now such is this, spread throughout the universe, and with extreme forwardness received of all nations, and hath borne up against all the encounters of time, and constantly maintained itself in the midst of so many revolutions of human affairs, by which many other things were lost.
,(2d) All men have believed that there is a God, and very few doubted but that he is a rewarder of virtue and punisher of vice. Now neither the one nor the other is fully accomplished in this world, even in the judgment of those who have no great knowledge of the nature of sin, nor what punishment is competent thereunto. There- fore there must be some state after this life, in which this retributive justice of punishing the bad and rewarding the good shall be mani- fested ; for here providence seemeth to be darkened, and the world is offended with the calamities of the good and prosperity of the wicked : 1 Cor. XV. 19, ' If in this life only we have hope in Christ Jesus, we are of. all men most miserable.'
(3d) If there be an end of man when he dieth, why is man afraid of torments after death ? Heb. ii. 15, ' Deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage.' Men fear death, not as a natural evil, as it terminateth our present comforts, but as a penal evil, as it is an entrance to unknown sorrows : 1 Cor. XV. 56, ' The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.' What is the reason of these stings of conscience, which are never so sensible and quick as when they approach near death, or behold them- selves in some imminent danger ? What are these but presaging fears, which anticipate miseries after this life ? If there were an utter end of men, these troubles should in reason then vanish ; but this is the time when these alarms are redoubled and those tempests increase their violence.
(2.) The light of Christianity doth much more discover it. That is properly a doctrine of things unseen ; that telleth us of a prison where are the spirits of wicked men, 1 Peter iii. 19 ; of a palace or mansions in our Father's house, where are the spirits of just men made perfect, Heb. xii. 23. On the one hand it telleth us of a worm that never dietli, of a fire that shall never be quenched, Mark ix. 44 ; on the other side, of joys that are at the right hand of God for ever- more, Ps. xvi. 11 ; that Christ died to free us from the wrath to come, 1 Thes. i. 10, and purchased heaven for us, -1 Thes. v. 10, and is gone to heaven to seize upon it in our name, John xiv. 2, 3, having first left a sure promise of eternal life to all that believe in him, 1 John ii. 25; which promise was outwardly confirmed by divers miracles accompanying them that went abroad to make this offer in his name, Heb. ii. 3, 4. Inwardly in the hearts of his people, by giving them the first-fruits of this everlasting estate in their union with himself, Col. i. 27, and the joys of his Spirit, which are therefore said to be full of glory, 1 Peter i. 8. These are truths interweaved throughout the whole body of Christianity. Now discourse but with yourselves — (1.) Partly concerning the thing itself; (2.) Partly con- cerning the certainty of your hope.