the world, such notions will not stand the trial; they that hold them will be losers by them; and though still they may be saved, it may be with difficulty and danger; as a person escapes, when his house is burning. When, lastly, many of the ancient Christians prayed for the dead: besides that they had no warrant for so doing, it was only for the completion of their happiness, whom they apprehended to be already in paradise: it was for the apostles, saints, and martyrs; for the blessed Virgin herself: whom they certainly did not think to be in purgatory. And observe, if they prayed for them, they did not pray to them. Purgatory then is nothing, but an imaginary place, invented by men, to give bad persons hope, and good persons dread of being put into it; that they may get what they can from both, by pretending to deliver them out of it again. Fear not therefore such vain terrors. The souls of the righteous are in the hands of the Lord: and there shall no torment touch them*.

Those of the wicked, on the contrary, as they are to be hereafter with the devils, we may justly believe are, like them, now delivered into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgement †: and though the worst of their sufferings shall not begin, till the day of judgment comes; yet they are represented by our Saviour, as being, instantly after death, in a place where they are tormented: and undoubtedly, the loss of their past pleasures and gains, remorse for their past follies and crimes, despair of pardon, and the fearful looking for of judgement and fiery in dignation, which shall devour them§; cannot but make

Wisdom iii. 1.
Luke xvi. 25.

† 2 Pet. ii. 4.

§ Heb. x. 27

their intermediate state intensely miserable: and what then will their final one be! God grant, that thinking frequently and seriously of these awful subjects we may know, and consider, in this our day, the things that belong to our peace, before they are for ever hid from our eyes*!

* Luke xix. 42.

LECTURE XVII.

CREED.

Article XI. XII. Part II. The Resurrection of the Body, and the Life everlasting.

UNDER the two last articles of the Creed, as I have already observed to you, are comprehended four points of doctrine:

I. That the souls of all men continue after death. II. That their bodies shall at the last day be raised up, and re-united to them.

III. That both souls and bodies of good persons shall enjoy everlasting happiness.

IV. That those of the wicked shall undergo everlasting punishment.

The first of these being the foundation of all the rest; I chose to enlarge on the proof and explanation of it. Now I proceed to shew,

II. That the bodies of all men shall be raised up again, and re-united to their souls. This reason alone cannot prove: and accordingly the heathen were ignorant of it: but it carries with it no contradiction to reason in the least. For God is infinite, both in power and knowledge: and it is unquestionably as possible to bring together and enliven the scattered parts of our body again, as it was to make

them out of nothing, and give them life, at first. And therefore, since we must acknowledge the original formation of our bodies to have been of God, we have abundant cause to be assured, that he can, after death, form them anew, whenever he pleases. And that this will be done, was probably implied in that general promise, made to our first parents, that the seed of the woman, our blessed Lord, should bruise the serpent's head*; destroy his power; and consequently take away the curse, under which he had brought mankind. For as part of that curse consists in the death of the body, it cannot be completely taken away, but by the resurrection of the body. In aftertimes, Abraham, we find, had so strong a belief of the possibility of this article, that he was willing, on the divine command, to sacrifice his son: reasoning, as the Epistle to the Hebrews teaches us, that God was able to raise him up, even from the deadt. And indeed he could not have been induced to this, by any other reasoning. God had promised him, that by his son Isaac he should have a numerous posterity: and this promise he firmly believed. Now he must know, it could never be fulfilled, if Isaac was to be sacrificed, but by his rising again: and therefore he must be persuaded, that he would rise again for that purpose. On proceeding somewhat further in the sacred history, we find Job expressing himself on this head, if we at all understand his words, in very strong terms: I know that my Redeemer liveth; and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though, after my skin, this body be destroyed; yet in my flesh shall I see Gods.

* Gen. iii. 15.

+ Heb. xi. 19. So, I think, the original should be translated. Job xix. 25, 26.

Again, when Elijah was taken up alive into heaven, this must surely give an expectation, that the body as well as the soul, was to partake of future happiness. And when the several persons, mentioned in the Old Testament, were raised up to life in this world, it could not but increase the probability of a general resurrection in the next. Then in the book of Daniel, we have an express declaration, that a time should come, when they who slept in the dust of the earth, should awake: some to everlasting life, and some to shame, and everlasting contempt. And indeed, when those, whom we commonly call the Three Children, in the former part of that book, tell the king, that even though it were not the pleasure of God to deliver them from the fiery furnace, yet would they not serve his gods†; on what other principle could they so rationally, or did they so probably say this, as on that, which the brethren in the book of Maccabees explicitly profess? There, one of them, stretching forth his hands to the torment, saith, These I had from heaven: and for his laws I despise them; and from him I hope to receive them again. Another, It is good, being put to death by men, to look for hope from God; to be raised up again by him. And lastly, the mother declares to her children: I neither gave you birth, nor life; nor was it I, that formed your members: but doubtless the Creator of the world, who formed the generation of man, and found out the beginning of all things, will also of his mercy give you breath and life again; as you now regard not yourselves for his law's sake‡. In the later times indeed of the Jewish church, not a few denied this doctrine: but much the greater number held it; allowing, as + Dan. iii. 17, 18.

• Dan. xii. 2.

2 Macc. vii. 10-23.