left to the event for a fuller demonftration of their folly. If there be really a future ftate of rewards and punishments, both the punishments and the rewards must be very inconfiderable indeed not to make it worth a man's while to live up to the conditions of being happy. So that, when the difpute is concerning the folly of irreligion, we may remit a great deal of the truth in allowing the punishment to be less than really it is, and the argument will ftill have force enough to convince irreligion of folly. The punishment in all cafes muft exceed the advantage the offender will reap by tranfgreffing the law; or else, as much as the gain to be reaped by breaking the law exceeds the punishment annexed to the breach, fo much encouragement there will be for men to offend. Therefore we may be fure that God, who is the wisest of lawgivers, has taken fuch care to guard his laws and ftatutes, that there shall be no encouragement for offenders. Upon which account we may affure ourselves, that, let the pleasures and advantages of fin and irreligion be ever so numerous or great, the punishment shall ftill be greater: fo that men shall say, when they are to pay the price of their fins, they have finned exceeding foolishly. Wicked men spend their time to no purpose in difputing against the punishments of fin, which are revealed to us; I mean, against the nature of them: for, if they once allow that fin and wickednefs fhall be punished, their own reafon will inform them that the punishment must at leaft be fo great, as to make it worth a man's while to abstain from fin. So that all finners must be

guilty of folly in choofing the fin with the punishment, when the punishment muft of neceflity exceed the advantage of finning.

These are the easiest terms that finners can flatter themselves with; and yet, even upon this view, the pleasures of fin will prove a dear bargain. But should the punishments of another life be, what we have but too much reason to fear they will be, what words can then exprefs the folly of fin? Short are your days in this world, and foon they fhall expire: and should religion at laft prove a mere deceit, we know the worst of it; it is an error for which we cannot fuffer after death: nor will the infidels there have the pleasure to reproach us with our mistake; they and we, in equal reft, fhall fleep the fleep of death. But fhould our hopes and their fears prove true; should they be fo unhappy as not to die for ever; which miferable hope is the only comfort that infidelity affords; what pains and torments must they then undergo! Could I reprefent to you the different ftates of good and bad men : could I give you the profpect which the bleffed martyr St. Stephen had, and fhew you the bleffed Jefus at the right hand of God, surrounded with angels, and the Spirits of juft men made perfect: could open your ears to hear the never-ceafing hymns of praise, which the bleffed above fing to him that was, and is, and is to come; to the Lamb that was flain, but liveth for ever: could I lead you through the unbounded regions of eternal day, and fhew the mutual and ever-blooming joys of faints who are at reft from their labour, and live for ever in the presence of God! or, could I change the

I

fcene, and unbar the iron gates of hell, and carry you, through folid darkness, to the fire that never goes out, and to the worm that never dies: could I fhew you the apoftate angels faft bound in eternal chains, or the fouls of wicked men overwhelmed with torment and defpair: could I open your ears to hear the deep itself groan with the continual cries of mifery; cries which can never reach the throne of mercy, but return in fad echoes, and add even to the very horrors of hell! could I thus fet before you the different ends of religion and infidelity, you would want no other proof to convince you that nothing can recompenfe the hazard men run, of being for ever miferable through unbelief. But, though neither the tongues of men nor of angels can exprefs the joys of heaven, or defcribe the pains of hell; yet, if there be any truth in religion, these things are certain, and near at hand.

Confider therefore with yourselves, that when you judge of religion, fomething more depends upon your choice, than the credit of your judgment, or the opinion of the world. For God's fake think religion at least so serious a thing, as to deferve your cooleft thoughts, and not fit to be determined in your hours of gaiety and leifure, or in the accidental converfation of public places. Truft yourself with yourself; retreat from the influence of diffolute companions; and take the advice of the holy Pfalmift: Stand in awe, and fin not: commune with your own heart, and in your chamber, and be fill.

DISCOURSE XXXIV.

LUKE xvi. 31.

And he faid unto him, If they hear not Mofes and the prophets, neither will they be perfuaded though one rose from the dead.

IT fometimes happens in matters of reason, as it often does in objects of fenfe; that which at first appearance makes a fair fhew, upon examination proves to be worthlefs and of no efteem. Some fruits, which allure the eye moft, can the leaft bear the test of the palate: they may be admired by the traveller, who rides haftily by, and only fees them at a distance; but, when they are ferved up at the table, the tafte foon rectifies the mistake of the eyes. So likewife, in matters of reafon : fome arguments ftrike the fancy immediately, and take the judgment captive, before it has time fairly to examine the merits of the caufe; and yet, when the vigour of the first onset is over, and time is given for reflection, the demonftration dwindles into nothing, and leaves a man admiring that he was fo eafily deceived by fo palpable a cheat. And this seems to be the cafe of the argument in which the

text is concerned: who would not think that the coming of one from the dead would effectually convince an unbeliever? Or, were we for ourselves to defire the last evidence for a future ftate, what more should we defire, than to see one come from the dead; one of our old acquaintance; and to hear from him the relation of what happened to him after death, and of what he had feen and experienced in the other world? And yet this evidence, our Saviour tells us, would have no effect upon an unbeliever: he, who can hold out against the evidence that God has already given that he will one day judge the world in righteousness, would not be perfuaded though one rofe from the dead.

Our Saviour does not deny the coming of one from the dead to be an evidence of a future ftate; nor yet, allowing it to be an evidence, does he determine of what weight and authority it is, or ought to be. This only he affirms; that, let the authority of it be what it will, they who will not fubmit to the authority of a divine revelation, will not fubmit to this: the reafon of which judgment may ap pear from the following confiderations:

First, If the evidence of revelation be in itself greater and more convincing than the evidence given by one from the dead can poffibly be, then there is no reason to expect that he who rejects the greater should submit to the lefs authority.

Secondly, If the objections which the unbeliever makes use of against the authority of revelation, lie ftronger against the authority of one coming from the dead, it is not to be fuppofed, that he will pafs