THE GREAT IMPORTANCE OF A RELIGIOUS LIF E. I CHAP. II. N the foregoing Chapter I have endeavoured to fhew, that Religion is the only folid Foun****dation of Happiness in this World; the only Thing that can make us pafs the Time of our Pilgrimage here on Earth with any tolerable Ease and Comfort. I fhall now proceed, in the next Place, to confider the great Advantage of a good Life, from the comfortable Profpect it gives us when we come to die. And And this is an advantage peculiar to Virtue and Religion; and to which a Life of Sin and Wickedness never pretended. The most which That promifes its Votaries, is to regale their Senfes for a little while it gives them no Hopes beyond the Grave; nor aims at any Thing further than a fhort-lived Happiness. When a wicked Prov. xl. Man dieth, his Expectation fhall perish.7. For what is the Hope of the Hypocrite, Job.xxvii. though he hath gained all that this Worlds. can give him, when God taketh away his Soul? All his Enjoyments are then at an End; and thofe Schemes, upon which he has built his Happiness, will vanish and come to nothing. But with a good Man it is far otherwife: He looks beyond this prefent Life, and beholds with an Eye of Faith the heavenly Jerufalem, the City of the living God; that Place of endless Blifs and Happiness, which God has prepared for them that love him. In the Hopes and Expectations of this Happiness, he confiders himself as a Pilgrim and Stranger upon Earth, and is daily endeåvouring, through the Affiftance of God's Holy Spirit, by a Life. of Virtue and Rightc D 2 Righteousness, to become meet to be a Partaker of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light. It must indeed be owned, that Death is the great King of Terrors; that the Diffolution of Soul and Body, and the Thoughts of becoming a Prey to the devouring. Worms, carries in it fomething very fhocking to Human Nature; Yet to a good Man, Death appears in a quite different View. He confiders, that to leave this World is only to quit a Place of Trouble and Vexation, of Vanity and Emptinefs: it is to leave a barren and dry Wilderness, where no Water is, for the delightful Regions of Bliss and Happiness, where are Rivers of Pleafure, and a never-ceafing Spring of endlefs Comfort, which will fatisfy the most longing Defires of the Soul. He confiders, that though this earthly Tabernacle is diffolved, yet he has a Building of God, a Houfe not made with Hands, eternal in the Job. xix. Heavens; and is affured with Job, that his 25,26,27 Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter Day upon the Earth; and that though his Body be deftroyed, yet in his Flefb he fhall fee God, whom he shall fee for him felf, felf, and his Eyes fhall behold, and not ahother's. This is what Religion promifes to them, who, by patient Continuance in well-doing, feek for Glory and Honour, and Immortality. It is the Hopes and Expectations of this unfpeakable Happinefs that fortify the Mind of a good Chriftian, and give him a Courage and Refolution, which even Death itself shall not be able to shake. It was this that gave holy David fuch à Firmnefs of Mind as made him fay, Though I walk through the Valley of the Pf. xxiii. Shadow of Death, I will fear no Evil; for 4• thou art with me, thy Rod and thy Staff comfort me. He had made God his Portion, his Hope, and his Truft: The Lord,-xviii. 1. fays he, is my ftony Rock, and my Defence, my Saviour, my God, and my Might, in whom I will truft, my Buckler, the Horn also of my Salvation. And though we find him fometimes complaining, that the Sorrows of Death bad compaffed him, and the Overflowings of Ungodliness made him afraid; that the Pains of Hell came about him, and the Snares of Death overtook him;.. yet the great Confidence he had in the Goodness and Love of God, and the firm Belief of a better Life after this, overcame all his Fears. I had fainted, fays xxvii. 15. he, but that I verily believe to fee the Goodnefs of the Lord in the Land of the Liv Pfalm ing. Religion has been the Support of good Men in all Ages. It is certain, whoever leans upon any Thing elfe will find that he trufts to a broken Reed, which will bend under him. There is nothing (as I have obferved in the former Chapter) but the Teftimony of a good Conscience, and the Hopes of the Favour and Love of God, that is able to bear a Man up under the Weight and Preffure of any great Calamity; much lefs will any Thing else be a fufficient support at the Hour of Death: for, then we shall be stript of all the Pleafures and Enjoyments of this World, of all thofe Things in which we are now apt to place fo great a Confidence; and, unless we are fortified with the Shield of Faith, and the Breaft-plate of Righteousness; unlefs we have put on the Lord Jefus, and are cloathed with the Robes of his Righteoufnefs, |