3. To mitigate and lighten the evils and afflictions of this life. It is no great matter how rough the way be, provided we be fure that it leads to happiness. The incomparably greater good of the next life will to a wife and confiderate man weigh down all the evils of this. And the Scripture tells us that there is no comparison between them. The fufferings of this pre Tent time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. The evils of this life af flict men more or less according as the foul is fortified with confiderations proper to support us under them. When we consider that we have but a little while to be here, that we are upon our journey travelling towards our heavenly Country where we fhall meet with all the delights we can defire, it ought not to trouble us much to endure ftorms and foul ways, and to want many of those accommodations we might expect at home. This is the common fate of Travellers, and we must take things as we find them and not look to have every thing just to our mind. These difficulties and inconveniencies will fhortly be over, and after a few days will be quite forgotten, and be to us as if they had never been. And when we are safely landed in our own Country, with what pleasure fhall we look back upon those rough and boisterous Seas which we have efcap'd? The more troubles we have past through the kinder usage we fhall find when we come to our Father's houfe. So the Apostle tells us, that our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. When we come to heaven our happiness fhall than be as real as our miseries were here upon earth, and far greater and more lasting. And what great matter is it tho' we fuffer a while in this world, provided we escape the endless unsufferable torments of the next; though we have not our good things in this life, if infinitely greater be referv'd for us, and we fhall receive them with intereft in the other?

Several of the evils and calamities of this life would be infufferable indeed, if there were nothing better to be hoped for hereafter. If this were true, Christians would not only be of all men but of all crea

tures

tures the moft miferable. But our Religion hath abun dantly affur'd us to the contrary. And the affurafice of this was that which made the primitive Christians to embrace fufferings with fo much chearfulness, to glory in tribulation, and to take joyfully the Spoiling of their goods, knowing that in heaven they had a better and more enduring fubftance. The feven brethren in the Hiftory of the Maccabees upon this perfuafion would not accept deliverance, that they might obtain a better refur vection. That ftorm of ftones which was pour'd upon St. Stephen was no more to him than a common shower when he faw the heavens open'd, and Jefus (in whose cause he fuffer'd) ftanding on the right hand of God.

4. To make us fincere in all our profeffions, words and actions. Did men firmly believe the rewards of another world their Religion would not be only in fhew and pretence, but in life and reality, no man would put on a form of godliness that were deftitute of the power of it; we fhould do nothing for the opinion of others, but all with regard to God and our own Confciences; and be as curious of our thoughts, and most retir'd actions, as if we were in an open theatre and in the presence of the greatest affembly. For in the next life men fhall not be rewarded for what they seem'd to be, but for what they really were in this world. Therefore whatever we think, or speak, or do, we fhould always remember that the day of revelation is coming, when the fecrets of all hearts fhall be disclos'd; When all disguifes fhall be laid aside, and every one's mask fhall be taken off, and all our actions and designs fhall be brought upon the public ftage and expos'd to the view of men and Angels. There is nothing now hidden which shall not then be reveal'd, nor fecret which shall not be made known.

5. To arm us against the fears of death. Death is terrible to nature, and the terror of it is infinitely increas'd by the fearful apprehenfions of what may Follow it. But the comfortable hopes of a bleffed im3 mortality do ftrangely relieve the fainting Spirits of dying men, and are able to reconcile us to death, and in a great measure to take away the terror of it. I know that the thoughts of death are dismal even to good men.

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and we have never more need of comfort and encou ragement than when we are conflicting with this last Enemy, and there is no fuch comfortable confidera tion to a dying man as the hopes of a happy eternity: He that looks upon death only as a pallage to glory, may welcome the messengers of it as bringing him the best and most joyful news that ever came to him in his whole life; and no man can stay behind in this world with half the comfort than this man leaves it.

I crave your patience but a little longer, till I make some reflection upon what hath been deliver'd concerning the happiness of good men after this life. I have told you that it is incomparably beyond any happiness of this world, that it is great in itfelf, and eternal in its duration, and far above any thing that we can now conceive or imagine. And now after all this, I am very fenfible how much all that I have faid comes fhort of the greatness and dignity of the thing. So that I could almost begin again and make a new ats tempt upon this fubject. And indeed who would not be loth to be taken off from so delightful an argument? Methinks'tis good for us to be here, and to let our minds dwell upon these confiderations. We are unworthy of heaven, and unfit to partake of so great a glory, if we cannot take pleasure in the contemplation of thofe things now, the poffeffion whereof fhall be our happiness for ever.

With what joy then fhould we think of those great and glorious things which God hath prepared for them that love him, of that inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, which fadeth not away, referved for us in the hedvens? How fhould we welcome the thoughts of that happy hour when we fhall make our escape out of thefe prifons, when we fhall pals out of this howling wilderness into the promis'd Land; when we fhall be remov'd from all the troubles and temptations of a wicked and ill-natur'd world; when we shall be paft all storms, and fecur'd from all further danger of fhipwreck, and fhall be fafely landed in the regions of blifs and im mortality?

O bleffed tiine! When all tears shall be wip'd from our eyes, and death and forrow shall be no more; When

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mortality fhall be swallowed up of life, and we fhall en ter upon the poffeffion of all that happiness and glory which God hath promis'd, and our faith hath believ'd, and our hopes have rais'd us to the expectation of; when we shall be eas'd of all our pains, and refolv'd of all our doubts, and be purg'd from all our fins, and be freed from all our fears, and be happy beyond all our hopes, and have all the happiness fecur'd to us beyond the power of time and change: When we fhall know God and other things without ftudy; and love him and one another without measure, and serve and praife him without weariness, and obey his will with out the leaft reluctancy; and shall still be more and more delighted in the knowing, and loving, and prai fing, and obeying of God to all eternity.

How thould thefe thoughts affect our hearts,, and what a mighty influence ought they to have upon our lives? The great disadvantage of the arguments fetch'd from another world in this, that those things are at a great distance from us, and not fenfible to us; and therefore are not apt to affect us so strongly, and to work To powerfully upon us. Now to make amends for this difadvantage we fhould often revive thefe confiderations upon our mind, and inculcate upon ourselves the reality and certainty of these things together with the infinite weight and importance of them. We Thould reafon thus with ourselves: If good men fhall be fo unspeakably happy, and confequently wicked men fo extremely miferable in another world: If thele things be true and will one day be found to be fo, why fhould they be to me as if they were already prefent? why fhould not I be as much afraid to commit any fin as if hell were nacked before me, and I saw the afto nifhing miseries of the damned? and why fhould I not be as careful to serve God and keep his commandinents, as if heaven were open to my view, and 1 faw Jefus ftanding at the right hand of God with crowns of glory in his hand ready to be fet upon the heads of all thole who continue faithful to him?

The lively apprehehenfions of the nearness of death and eternity are apt to make men's thoughts more quick and piercing, and according as we think our fel

ves prepar'd for our future state to transport us with joy, or to amaze us with horror. For the foul that is fully fatisfied of his future blifs, is already entred into heaven, has begun to take poffeffion of glory, and has (as it were) his blefled Saviour in his armis, and may fay with old Simeon, Lord, now letteft thou thy fervans, depart in peace, for mine eyes have feen thy Jalvation. But the thougths of death muft needs be very terrible to that man who is doubtful or despairing of his future condition. It would daunt the stoutest man that ever breathed, to look upon death when he can fee nothing but hell beyond it. When the Apparition at Endor told Saul, To morrow thou and thy Sons shall be with me, these words struck him to the heart, fo that he fell down to the ground, and there was no more strength left in him. It is as certain that we fhall die as if an exprefs messenger fhould come to every one of us from the other world and tell us fo. Why fhould we not then' always live as those that muft die, and as those that hope to be happy after death? To have thefe apprehenfions vigorous and lively upon our minds, this is to have our converfation in heaven, from whence alfo we look for a Saviour, the Lord Jefus Chrift, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious, body, according to the working of that mighty power where by he is able even to fubdue all things to himself.

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Dr. Bla í r.

Es thut mir leid, daß ich die schon ausgehobenen Beispiele einiger neuerer englischer Kanzelredner, eines Sherlock, Atters bury, Butler und White hier abbrucken zu laffen nicht meht Raum finde. Es mag also an einer Stelle aus dem eben erst ers schienenen vierten Bande der Predigten Dr. Blair's (f. B. VIII. 1. G. 421.) genug fenn, der von den jettlebenden englischen GeiftsTM lichen von dieser Seite am berühmtesten ist. Der in seinen Vors: Lesungen über die Rhetorik befindliche treffliche Abschnitt über KangTM gelberedfamkeit beweist sein reifes Nachdenken und seine richtige Theorie über diesen Gegenstand eben so einleuchtend und vortheils baft, als feine mit Talent, Fleiß und Geschmack ausgearbeiteten Predigten, voll lichter Ordnung, gründlicher Bewetsführung, trefs fender Darstellung, und fanfter, aber sichrer, Ueberzeugungskraft, Beisp. Samml. 8. B. 2. Abth.

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